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Man accused of bribing former AMK Town Council’s GM spent over S$4,000 for KTV session, says business partner

SINGAPORE — In a single night, company director Chia Sin Lan could spend over S$4,000 entertaining the former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) over dinner and karaoke, and paying for his stay at a budget hotel.

Chia Sin Lan (pictured) is accused of bribing Wong Chee Meng, former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, paying for his entertainment bills in the form of dinners and karaoke sessions.

Chia Sin Lan (pictured) is accused of bribing Wong Chee Meng, former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council, paying for his entertainment bills in the form of dinners and karaoke sessions.

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SINGAPORE — In a single night, company director Chia Sin Lan could spend over S$4,000 entertaining the former general manager of Ang Mo Kio Town Council (AMKTC) over dinner and karaoke, and paying for his stay at a budget hotel.

Testifying in court on Thursday (Nov 8), Chia’s business partner Tay Eng Chuan said that he had received some hotel receipts from Chia for reimbursement.

Mr Tay maintained the cash flow records at the company 19-NS2 Enterprise, where he was a shareholder and Chia, a director.

The hotel receipts usually amounted to S$30 or S$35 and were typically for rooms at Hotel 81 or Fragrance Hotel, said Mr Tay at the corruption trial of Chia, 62, and 58-year-old Wong Chee Meng, AMKTC’s former general manager.

Wong is accused of taking bribes of more than S$107,000, mostly from Chia, to advance the business interests of 19-ANC and 19-NS2 with AMKTC.

19-ANC was named after the former Apollo Night Club which was on the 19th storey of a building, while 19-NS2 was named after the address of an engineering firm, which was located on the second floor of the Northstar commercial building in Ang Mo Kio.

Chia is a director of both 19-ANC and 19-NS2, which deal with general building, repairs and redecoration works.

Asked by District Judge John Ng if one ledger entry, which indicated an expense of S$4,280 on Oct 8, 2015, was for entertainment in a single night or a sum total of a few entertainment sessions, Mr Tay said that it was for one night.

The same S$4,280 entry was also scrutinised by Deputy Public Prosecutor Jiang Ke-Yue, who read out Chia's earlier statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB).

Chia had said that “(both Wong and I) usually don't spend over S$4,000 in one night. This could be over two to four (sessions) but I cannot be sure”.

Mr Tay, a prosecution witness, maintained that the expense should be for a single entertainment session, because another entry just a few days earlier, on September 24, 2015, indicated S$2,200 spent by Chia in entertaining Wong.

Other entries in the ledger showed Chia spending similar amounts on several occasions in 2015 and 2016 to entertain Wong. There was a S$3,800 expense on May 30, 2015, for instance.

For an entry on Nov 2, 2015 that showed an expense of S$400, Mr Tay said that it could be because both Chia and Wong had leftover alcohol at the karaoke joint from their previous sessions, and did not open new bottles.

In his statement to CPIB, Chia also said that he spent S$1,080 for a spa package in Geylang with Wong, who is also known as Victor.

The entries in the ledger indicating entertainment expenses for Wong were deliberately recorded differently, such as “V” for Victor or “Owen” — a nickname given to Wong by Chia. This was Chia's idea to prevent government officials from easily tracing the entertainment expenses, Mr Tay said.

Other nicknames given to Wong by Chia were “Michael” and “Wei Kia” (“shorty” in dialect).

The ledger also revealed that the company was avoiding taxes and engaging in other illicit practices. Numerous entries showed the reimbursement of salaries that were falsely inflated for work permits, as well as the abuse of the Government’s Productivity and Innovation Credit scheme, which provided funding for firms investing in innovation and taking steps to improve productivity.

For example, 19-NS2 falsely listed a taxi driver, who was Chia’s friend, as a Singaporean employee so as to allow the company to hire seven work-permit holders. 19-NS2 would appear to pay the taxi driver a monthly wage, but the driver would then return it to the company, the financial records showed.

The trial continues on Friday.

 

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