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Ex-assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore charged with accepting S$200,000 in bribes

SINGAPORE — A former assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore was charged on Friday (March 11) with taking S$200,000 in bribes over four years to advance various companies’ business interests with the organisation.

Goh Meng Kwee, 49, a former assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, had allegedly accepted S$200,000 in bribes over four years.
Goh Meng Kwee, 49, a former assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, had allegedly accepted S$200,000 in bribes over four years.
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SINGAPORE — A former assistant director of Wildlife Reserves Singapore was charged on Friday (March 11) with taking more than S$200,000 in bribes over four years to advance various companies’ business interests with the non-profit organisation.

Goh Meng Kwee, 49, faces 11 corruption charges and two other counts of laundering his ill-gotten gains through the purchase of a Mercedes-Benz car.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore was rebranded as the Mandai Wildlife Group in October last year.

Aside from Goh, six other men who allegedly gave him bribes were charged on Friday. They are:

  • Ng Yeow Seng, 59, a director of Ascension Engineering Services. He is accused of giving S$20,000 in bribes to Goh in 2014
  • Neo Chye Koon and Wong Chee Thiam, both 52. The directors of Magnum Precision Industries allegedly gave bribes to Goh totalling S$50,000 on two occasions between 2016 and 2018
  • Ng Thiam Huat, 56, a director of United Channel Construction & Facility Services. He purportedly gave Goh bribes amounting to S$72,000 on two occasions in 2017
  • Tay Chun Hsiong, 56, a business development manager of Lantro (S), and Fang Yih Uei, a 34-year-old Malaysian director of RH Creation. Both allegedly conspired to give a bribe of S$50,000 to Goh in May 2018 to advance Lantro’s business interests with a Wildlife Reserves Singapore contractor

Tay was also charged with obtaining S$3,000 of bribes from Ng Thiam Huat as a reward for furthering Ng’s company’s business interests with Lantro.

Goh allegedly used about S$44,000 of the gratification he took to pay for a Mercedes-Benz B200 sometime in 2017, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau said in a statement to the media.

This formed two charges of money laundering under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.

All seven cases were adjourned to next month, with Tay and Fang indicating their intention to plead guilty.

Those convicted of corruption can be jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$100,000, or punished with both.

Separately, in September last year, a former Wildlife Reserves Singapore employee was charged with receiving more than S$2.4 million in bribes. Another former employee pleaded guilty in January to similarly taking more than S$50,000 in bribes for not reporting what was happening.

Related topics

court bribe corruption Wildlife Reserves Singapore money laundering

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