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14 months' jail for man who helped ex-RSAF engineer friend cheat Govt of over S$632K

SINGAPORE – A childhood friend and accomplice of a former Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) engineer, with whom he conspired to cheat the Government of over S$632,000, was sentenced to 14 months’ jail on Monday (Sept 17).

SINGAPORE – A childhood friend and accomplice of a former Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) engineer, with whom he conspired to cheat the Government of more than S$632,000, was jailed 14 months on Monday (Sept 17).

Jeevan Arumugam, 48, said he was having financial difficulties and engineer Rajkumar Padmanathan, who was his secondary schoolmate, had “exploited his weakness” at the time. “It was a pure lapse of judgment,” he told District Judge Shaifuddin Saruwan.

Rajkumar, the mastermind behind the scheme, had approached Jeevan in late 2010 and suggested that they register a company together. The company was then used to bid for RSAF maintenance and repair works.

On Jan 22 in 2011, Eagle Flight Aviation Services was incorporated, with Jeevan registered as the sole director and shareholder of the company. Rajkumar assisted him on technical matters.

At the time, Rajkumar was the Bay-In-Charge at Fire Control Flight in Tengah Air Base. Part of his job involved raising repair and maintenance work requests, as well as recommending contractors based on their submissions of quotations.

Rajkumar used his knowledge of the RSAF’s tender process and familiarity with the works and prices to help Jeevan. He also gave Jeevan suppliers’ contacts and helped in preparing quotations.

Rajkumar would also recommend Eagle Flight Aviation Services to be awarded the works for which it tendered. The RSAF awarded the company 67 jobs, amounting to more than S$632,000 in total.

Once payment was disbursed, Jeevan would withdraw the money, and passed an unspecified portion to Rajkumar.

No restitution has been made to the Ministry of Defence for the money paid out.

Last month, Jeevan admitted to five counts of cheating. Another 62 charges were taken into account for sentencing.

For his part, Rajkumar was convicted in May of cheating the Government of more than S$1.8 million through various scams. He was sentenced to two years and two-and-a-half months’ jail in July after he admitted to 19 cheating charges, eight charges under the Official Secrets Act, and another corruption charge. 

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