Former FAS deputy director and wife among 4 charged with cheating the association of S$639,000

• Rikram Jit Singh Randhir Singh, his wife and two other company directors were charged with cheating the Football Association of Singapore from 2016 to 2018
• They allegedly conspired to submit misleading invoices and quotations to FAS
• Rikram hid his alleged involvement in his wife’s company, to which FAS awarded jobs
• As a result, the FAS was allegedly cheated of S$639,480

SINGAPORE — Four Singaporeans, including a former deputy director of the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and his wife, were charged on Wednesday (Dec 9) with conspiring to cheat the sport’s governing body here of more than S$600,000.

As a result of their alleged actions, FAS awarded jobs to a company run by Rikram Jit Singh Randhir Singh’s spouse, Asya Kirin Kames, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a press release on Wednesday.

The couple now faces 45 cheating charges each.

Rikram, 40, was an FAS deputy director of commercial and business development at the time of the alleged offences between 2016 and 2018. His contract was terminated in January 2019.

Asya, 33, was a director at a firm called All Resource Network (ARN) from April to October 2017. ARN, which was registered in 2014, deals in wholesale sporting and recreational goods.

The pair are accused of conspiring with each other to cheat the FAS. 

They also allegedly conspired to do so with another ARN director — Shankar Suppiah — who had taken over directorship of the firm from Asya in October 2017, as well as with Pallaniappan Ravindran, the director of events organiser Myriad Sports & Events.

Shankar, 43, and Pallaniappan, 47, were charged on Wednesday with 37 and 15 counts of cheating respectively.

CPIB said that invoices submitted to FAS by ARN had concealed Rikram’s alleged involvement in ARN.

This led the association to award jobs to ARN and deliver S$181,875 to the firm between 2017 and 2018.

The couple also purportedly submitted quotations, in some instances by conspiring with Shankar and Pallaniappan, from Myriad Sports & Events to FAS.

The quotations hid the fact that Rikram was involved in ARN, and that ARN would carry out the works.

Because of this, FAS awarded the works to Myriad Sports & Events and delivered S$457,605 to the firm between 2016 and 2018.

This brought the total amount allegedly cheated from FAS to S$639,480.

Rikram and Asya were each offered bail of S$200,000, while the other two men were offered bail of S$50,000. All four accused persons will return to court on Jan 13 next year.

If convicted, they could be jailed up to 10 years and fined on each charge.

In response to TODAY’s queries on how FAS discovered the alleged offences, its spokesperson said: “We have extended our full cooperation with the authorities and are unable to comment as court proceedings are ongoing.”

This is the second time in recent years that the association has made headlines over internal financial issues.

In 2017, the police raided FAS’ premises after receiving reports by national sport governing body Sport Singapore over the suspected misuse of funds at Tiong Bahru Football Club.

Former FAS president and former Member of Parliament Zainudin Nordin, FAS general secretary Winston Lee, Hougang United chairman Bill Ng and his wife Bonnie Wong were arrested then.

Mr Ng had revealed during a press conference that he donated S$500,000 to FAS, then insisted it was Mr Lee and not Mr Zainudin who requested the donation. 

Mr Lee then produced documents proving that it was Mr Ng and Mr Zainudin who corresponded over the donation.

It is unclear what the status of this case is.