S$40m SkillsFuture fraud: Last syndicate member to be sentenced gets over 13 years' jail

SINGAPORE — The final member of a criminal syndicate to be sentenced for a S$40 million fraud on SkillsFuture Singapore received more than 13 years' jail for cheating, forgery and money laundering offences, the police and SkillsFuture Singapore said in a joint statement on Wednesday (May 31).

David Lim Wee Hong was sentenced to a jail term of 165 months on Wednesday. He was convicted of the offences on March 17, said the agencies.

The syndicate submitted false course fee grant claims to cheat SkillsFuture Singapore into disbursing training grants totalling about S$39.9 million.

The scheme's main masterminds, Ng Cheng Kwee and Lee Lai Leng, were convicted and sentenced in 2021.

Another member of the group, Sim Soon Lee, was sentenced to a jail term of 172 months, or more than 14 years, on July 15, 2022.

WHAT HAPPENED

To carry out the scheme, the syndicate registered nine dormant entities, six as applicant companies and three as training providers, with SkillsFuture Singapore using the SingPass login credentials of Ng, Lee and their family members.

Sometime in late April 2017, Ng, Lee, Sim, Lim and other syndicate operatives decided to perpetrate the scheme on a larger scale.

Sim was tasked to recruit other individuals as nominee directors for the nine entities to obscure the identities of the syndicate members and to evade detection by the authorities.

Between April 2017 and October 2017, a total of 8,381 course fee grant applications and a corresponding 8,391 claims to SkillsFuture Singapore were submitted by the syndicate.

These submissions involved 25,141 employees purportedly working for the six applicant entities, who had purportedly attended training courses conducted by the three training providers.

It was later discovered that no training courses were conducted and none of the 25,141 individuals were employees of the applicant entities.

After the grants were disbursed by SkillsFuture Singapore to the bank accounts of eight of the entities, Sim and Lim assisted the syndicate to launder the criminal proceeds.

They accompanied the nominee directors to withdraw the criminal proceeds by encashing cheques issued from the corporate bank accounts of the entities or other bank accounts controlled by members of the syndicate.

The cash was then handed over to Ng or Lee.

Lim’s money-laundering offences went beyond the encashing of cheques.

On one occasion, on Ng’s instructions, Lim collected two bags containing cash of S$2.6 million from Lee and passed the bags to two unknown persons.

On a separate occasion, also on Ng’s instructions, Lim concealed cash of S$900,000 in the boot of Lee’s car, and later drove the car to a secluded place in Singapore to conceal the ill-gotten proceeds from the police.

Following the conclusion of Lim’s proceedings, all members of the criminal syndicate have now been convicted for their involvement in the fraud.

The police said that any abuse of government grants is taken seriously and they will not hesitate to take action against such offenders.

“Offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law,” they added.

Similarly, SkillsFuture Singapore said that it has taken steps to prevent similar cases of fraud from recurring.

“(SkillsFuture Singapore) will impose severe penalties on individuals, training providers or applicant companies who abuse SSG’s funding schemes and subsidies, and will not hesitate to refer to the police any individuals who commit such acts,” it said.

It urged members of the public to stay vigilant over potential fraud or abuse cases. They may provide information of such cases by calling 6326 2828 or via email at audit [at] ssg.gov.sg.