Jail for former NUS research fellow who made ‘secret profits’ endorsing own firm to institute

SINGAPORE — A Singaporean researcher who recommended her own company as a supplier to the NUS Environmental Research Institute (Neri) and made a profit from the transactions will be facing jail time.

Liang Juan, 42, was sentenced to eight weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Jan 15) for cheating on three counts.

The former research fellow with Neri had disregarded the conflict of interest and made more than S$15,000 in “secret profit” between February 2012 and January 2013.

Part of her job was to procure items from suppliers for her research work and she had to recommend suppliers during the procurement process.

In January 2012, she set up a company called Biochem, which sourced products at significantly cheaper prices from overseas and sold them to Neri at higher prices.

She and her husband were directors of the company and at no point did she disclose to Neri that she owned Biochem or disqualified herself from handling the procurement of goods from Biochem.

Instead, she recommended Biochem to Neri 10 times to buy items totalling S$37,952 — when the items cost the company S$22,580 to procure.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Leong Weng Tat said that even when the National University of Singapore (NUS) questioned her on the purchases in a meeting, Liang denied that she knew who the owner of Biochem was and shook her head when asked whether she was related to any particular staff member from Biochem.

It was only after Liang was shown the search results from the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority in that meeting did she concede and said she was concerned that Biochem’s business with Neri would be affected if she were to make such a declaration.

Neri confirmed in the course of its investigations that it would not have approved the transactions with Biochem at the sums set out, if it knew that Liang was involved in the business.

Liang has since made full restitution for the S$15,372.49 in profits it made off Neri.

In DPP Leong’s sentencing submissions, he said that there should be “no distinction between a cheating offence committed through an active act or by way of concealment”.

Liang’s actions did not merely amount to making a “secret profit” — her wrongful actions had, in essence, been to deceive Neri into paying more than it otherwise ought to, he added.

Liang could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for cheating and dishonestly inducing Neri to deliver contracts to Biochem.

She remains out on a S$15,000 bail as she was granted a deferment to start serving her sentence on Feb 18 after Chinese New Year.