Suspected syndicate members behind S$40m bogus SkillsFuture claims charged

SINGAPORE — In the largest defraudment of a public institution to date, a 41-year-old Singaporean believed to be part of a crime syndicate was charged in court on Tuesday (Dec 19) for allegedly making S$40 million of bogus SkillsFuture claims.

Ng Cheng Kwee was slapped with five charges, which include forging documents to pass off as a public servant in order to obtain training subsidies from SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG), concealing benefits from the criminal conduct and obstructing justice.

He is the fifth suspect charged in connection with this case and was described by prosecutors as one of the main perpetrators of the crimes. Four others - two men and two women aged 30 to 59 - were hauled to court last month for a series of alleged offences ranging from fraud to receiving as well as hiding criminal proceeds.

The syndicate allegedly operated a network that used nine business entities, comprising companies and training providers, to submit the fraudulent claims, according to preliminary police investigations.

Close to S$40 million was paid out as a result and the police have seized "substantial cash" and frozen a number of bank accounts involved in the case, said SSG in a statement. Police investigations are ongoing.

SSG said it detected anomalies in claims for training grants at the end of October, and immediately suspended all payments of grants to the nine entities and reported the case to the police.

Court documents showed that in April this year, Ng and a 39-year-old woman named Lee Lai Leng allegedly forged and submitted various documents purportedly made by a public servant to SSG. Lee faces six charges including forgery and perverting the course of justice.

One of the documents, dated March 16, had the letterhead of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board and was titled "record of payment". It purportedly showed CPF contributions credited to employees of KY and Lin Firm, which provides business and management consultancy services, for the month of February.

Similar documents were also made for two other firms, according to court documents. They were CKL LLP – which operates food courts and coffee shops – as well as YK Design Firm, which deals with software and programming. The other six implicated organisations were not revealed.

While in China last month, Ng allegedly issued instructions to conceal benefits from the criminal conduct amounting to S$6.7 million and 11 kilograms of gold worth an estimated S$600,000.

Lee Lai Leng relayed the instruction to another co-accused Lee Chi Wai, 30, who allegedly removed the criminal proceeds from a safe located at a Housing Development Board (HDB) flat at Block 164A Rivervale Crescent.

Lee Chi Wai faces two charges for knowingly receiving stolen property, which include gold and money deposited into his OCBC bank account.

Ng also allegedly informed Lee Lai Leng to throw away her mobile phone, and ordered her to pass the same information to Lee Chi Wai.

He apparently gave similar instructions to a fourth co-accused, David Lim Wee Hong, who faces two charges – for allegedly receiving stolen property amounting to S$150,000 and for perverting the course of justice by allegedly deleting WhatsApp conversations and call logs with Ng as well as Lee Lai Leng.

A fifth accused person, 59-year-old Tan Yoon Nooi, faces one charge for knowingly possessing stolen property - S$49,950 deposited into her OCBC bank account.

Ng, who is in remand, will appear in court again on Dec 26.

THREE ACCUSED PERSONS LINKED TO BUSINESS ENTITY

According to Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records, the three entities — CKL LLP, YK Design Firm and KY and Lin Firm — are registered under the same address in Amtech Building on Sin Ming Road. However, TODAY could not find the unit on Tuesday evening and the names of the firms were not listed on the building directory. Two tenants approached said they had not heard of the companies.

The entities -- set up in 2009 and 2014 -- share the same director, a Singaporean called Ang Cheng Guan. Three of the accused persons — Tan Yoon Nooi, Lee Lai Leng and Ng — along with a fourth person, Joseph Alagappan Silakannu, are listed as withdrawn partners of CKL LLP.

Lee Lai Leng and Ng share the same address, according to Acra records.

The case is the latest — and largest — SkillsFuture fraud. In February this year, SSG uncovered a case of 4,400 Singaporeans making fake claims amounting to some S$2.2 million for a single course. This case is still under investigation.

Five months later, four men involved with a training provider were charged with SkillsFuture Credit fraud amounting to more than S$70,000 through bogus claims for courses that were not conducted.

SSG said on Tuesday it has taken "immediate actions to tighten its processes, which include implementing fraud analytics, while conducting a comprehensive review of the system".

To stamp out cases of abuse, SSG introduced new guidelines in May for all claims of SkillsFuture Credit to be paid out directly to the training providers instead of to individuals.

Since January, the authorities have also changed the guidelines to prevent training providers from using gimmicks such as lucky draws and freebies to promote their programmes.

A Process Review Committee, comprising SkillsFuture Singapore board members, has also been formed to review policies and procedures relating to training grants.

Members of the public with feedback on individuals or organisations suspected of making fraudulent claims can report to SSG via its website: https://portal.ssg-wsg.gov.sg/feedback. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KELLY NG

Amount involved dwarves previous fraud cases against public agencies

The case on Tuesday (Dec 19) involves a syndicate which allegedly made S$40 million worth of bogus SkillsFuture claims. This is, by far, the biggest ever amount of money defrauded from a public institution.

Here are examples of previous cases which grabbed the headlines in recent years:

• Over five years, two female former employees cheated the Singapore Statutory Boards Employees' Co-operative Thrift and Loan Society of S$5.1 milllion worth of its members' savings. They duped the organisation into issuing cheques using names of phantom members. In August, Arni Ahmad, 41, was sentenced to 12 years jail, while her accomplice Hanati Jani, 50, was jailed nine years and eight months.
   
• Four men – aged between 29 and 41 – were charged in July, after they allegedly submitted sham SkillsFuture Credit claims worth S$73,000 from hundreds of individuals who had not attended any courses. This was done through training provider firm Biz HR Solutionz, which was subsequently suspended from getting government funding under the scheme. The case is still ongoing.
   
• In January, SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) discovered that 4,400 individuals had submitted false claims, encashing their SkillsFuture Credit without attending any courses. The bogus claims, which amounted to some S$2.2 million, were detected after SSG's data analytics system found thousands of claims flooding in for the same course. Investigations showed that the individuals acted independently and did not conspire with the training provider.
   
• A magician, S Chandran, was charged in January with 58 counts under the Income Tax Act for making fraudulent claims under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme. Between June 2013 and November 2014, he allegedly helped 49 claimants to falsely obtain cash payouts amounting to S$1.1 million in total under the scheme. Chandran had allegedly acted as a PIC broker and received about S$400,000 from the payouts. The case is still ongoing.
   
• In 2014, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs protocol chief Lim Cheng Hoe was sentenced to 15 months' jail, after he had cheated the Government of nearly S$89,000 over five years, by overstating expense claims for boxes of pineapple tarts and bottles of wine. They were bought as gifts for official overseas trips and visits.
   
• In 2011, two former Singapore Land Authority (SLA) officers were jailed for cheating the organisation of S$12.5 million. Koh Seah Wee and Lim Chai Meng submitted false invoices over two years through various IT firms for fictitious maintenance services and goods that were never needed or delivered. Koh, SLA's former deputy director of technology and infrastructure, was jailed 22 years, while former manager Lim received a 15-year prison sentence.