SINGAPORE — Company director Chia Sin Lan threatened to report his business partner to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), when the latter said he wanted to withdraw his shares from the company.

Mr Tay Eng Chuan, who was a shareholder in 19-NS2 Enterprise, told Chia in August 2016 that he wanted to leave the company after “so many things happened” within a short span of time.

Chia, the director of 19-NS2 and 19-ANC Enterprise, is accused of bribing Wong Chee Meng, former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC). Wong is alleged to have taken bribes totalling more than S$107,000, in the form of entertainment expenses, a mobile phone line that he used to make calls to his mistress in China, and employment for his daughter-in-law, Ms Stella Le Thi Hien.

The dealings between the two men from December 2014 to September 2016 allegedly helped 19-ANC and 19-NS2 — which handle building, repair and redecoration works — to score contracts with the town council.

During the court hearing on Wednesday (Nov 14) for the ongoing trial, the prosecution asked Mr Tay about the exchanges on WhatsApp he had with Chia.

The phone text messages were on matters related to Wong’s mistress, Ms Xu Hongmei, as well as Ms Le’s employment at 4-Ever Engineering, a subcontractor of 19-ANC. Chia had found work for her there and paid her salary for a few months.

Mr Tay told the court that all these issues drove him to think of leaving 19-NS2 because they were “related to bribery” and differed from their “original principles” when they founded the company, and from business morals.

“I felt it was better to withdraw my shares,” he said.

When Mr Tay told Chia he wanted to leave 19-NS2, Chia sent him a photograph showing the debit card registered under Mr Tay’s company that Wong used for entertainment expenses and a SIM card that was possibly for the mobile phone that Wong used to call his mistress.

When Deputy Public Prosecutor Jiang Ke-Yue asked Mr Tay what was the significance of the photo, he replied: “He’s telling me that he will use this debit card and SIM card to report me to CPIB.”

Chia then sent Mr Tay two text messages in Chinese saying: “I am angry, invite you to drink coffee” and used the term “small person”.

“Drink coffee” is a reference to the CPIB, while “small person” is a term for someone you do not like, Mr Tay said.

Cross-examined later by Wong’s lawyer, Ms Melanie Ho, Mr Tay said that he had known Wong for more than 10 years when he joined 19-NS2, which was set up around July 2013.

He also got to know Ms Alisa Yip Fong Yin — a project director at 19-ANC, and a director and shareholder of 19-NS2 — sometime around 1999, when he was a subcontractor of the company she was working at then.

The three would have meals together as “normal friends”, he added.

When Wong was hospitalised one time, Mr Tay said he visited him two days in a row, and had sent him encouraging messages.

The trial continues on Thursday.