Woman jailed for role in cheating engineering firm of S$10 million

SINGAPORE — A former employee of an engineering firm was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail on Tuesday (Dec 4) for her role in cheating the company of millions of dollars.

Ng Shu Jun was a former assistant manager of UE Service Corp Singapore, a subsidiary of United Engineers, at the time of the offences, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a press release.

The 30-year-old was involved in a scheme devised by Linda Lee and Tan Aik Gee – Lee was the vice-president of asset management at United Engineers Development, another of the company's subsidiaries, and Tan was employed by a renovation firm named Ying Xin Services.

Beginning in 2009, the pair siphoned money from United Engineers using Lee's position to submit fictitious job requests, then certified and awarded the fictitious works to several companies. The jobs were never carried out.

When payment was made to these companies, Lee and Tan would split the money.

In 2013, Lee approached Ng to help in the cheating scheme. Lee gave her the letterheads of various companies and told her to create fictitious quotations, in exchange for unspecified benefits.

In total, United Engineers was deceived into paying more than S$10 million for works that were never carried out.

Ng was fired by the company in June 2015.

She was charged with 16 counts of conspiring to cheat, resulting in about S$4.62 million paid out by the company for works that were not carried out.

She also faces another charge of attempting to conspire with Lee to dishonestly induce the company into paying S$19,000 for works which were not done.

Lee, who obtained nearly S$5 million from the scam, was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years' jail in October. About S$2.47 million was recovered from her and returned to United Engineers.

Tan, who gained S$4.2 million in the ruse, was sentenced to 11 years' jail and fined S$900,000 in November. Only S$208,000 has since been recovered from him and returned to the company.

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