Four Charged For Alleged Corruption, Cheating and Falsification of Accounts Offences

On 25 June 2021, four individuals were charged in Court for respective corruption, cheating and falsification of accounts offences. They are:

a) Wong Wei Chern (“Wong”) (黄伟拯, 38-year-old male Malaysian, Singapore PR), Project Manager of Rich Construction Company Pte Ltd (“RCC”) at the material time;

b) Lu Zhibo (“Lu”) (吕志波, 38-year-old male Chinese national), General Manager of Nanjing Minglu Construction Engineering Co. Ltd. (“NJML”) at the material time;

c) Hua Li (“Hua”) (华历, 44-year-old male Singaporean), Director of Heng Sheng Construction & Engineering Pte Ltd at the material time; and

d) Xu Jie (“Xu”) (徐杰, 42-year-old male Malaysian, Singapore PR), Director of Heng Dong Construction Pte Ltd at the material time.

Corruption offences

2. Between November 2016 and August 2019, Wong allegedly obtained loans totalling S$44,000 from Lu, Hua and Xu to refrain from causing difficulty for the three in relation to their company’s works on the Bidadari Build-to-Order (BTO) project which Wong was overseeing. Wong also allegedly promised to favour Hua’s company in future projects with Wong’s company. For his actions, Wong faces 12 corruption charges for offences punishable under Section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Correspondingly, Hua and Xu each face two corruption charges, while Lu faces eight corruption charges, punishable under Section 6(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Cheating offence

3. Sometime in 2018, Wong allegedly deceived his company by dishonestly concealing the fact that Hua had paid him S$26,000 for post-concreting works carried out by Wong’s company’s workers. Wong is believed to have pocketed the sum. As a result, RCC omitted to seek payment from Hua’s company for the work done by RCC’s workers. For this, Wong faces one charge of cheating, punishable under Section 417 of the Penal Code.

Falsification of accounts offences

4. Between January 2018 to August 2019, Lu allegedly directed his employees to make false entries on his company’s payment vouchers to disguise the payments to Wong. Accordingly, Lu faces nine charges of falsification of accounts, punishable under Section 477A of the Penal Code.

5. Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and other criminal activities such as cheating and falsification of accounts. Any person who is convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to S$100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or to both. Any person convicted of cheating under Section 417 of the Penal Code can be fined or sentenced to imprisonment of up to three years, or to both. Any person convicted of falsifying accounts under Section 477A of the Penal Code can be fined or sentenced to imprisonment of up to 10 years, or to both.

6. The CPIB looks into all corruption complaints and reports, including anonymous ones, and can be reached via the following channels:

a) Lodge an e-Complaint;
b) Email us at report@cpib.gov.sg;
c) Call the Duty Officer at 1800-376-0000; or
d) Write to us at the CPIB Headquarters @ 2 Lengkok Bahru, S159047.

7. Where possible, the report should include the following information:

a) Where, when and how the alleged corrupt act happened?
b) Who was involved and what were their roles?
c) What was the bribe given and the favour shown?

CORRUPT PRACTICES INVESTIGATION BUREAU