Ex-senior executive at Certis Cisco who obtained bribes in the form of loans totalling $83k gets jail

A former senior executive with security services company Certis Cisco Protection Services (CCPS) admitted on Tuesday that he had obtained bribes in the form of loans totalling $83,000.

Court documents stated that, among other things, Alvin Lee May Sim obtained bribes from Nazarisham Mohamad Isa and Abdul Razeez Mohamad Rasit as inducements to advance the business interests of the pair’s firm with CCPS.

On Tuesday, Lee, 43, pleaded guilty to six charges, mainly those under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and was sentenced to a year in jail.

He was also ordered to pay a penalty of nearly $79,700 and will spend an additional six weeks behind bars if he fails to fork out the amount.

The cases involving Razeez, 37, and Nazarisham, 44, are pending.

In an earlier statement, Certis said Lee was removed from all duties immediately when it learnt that he would be investigated by the authorities. He resigned on Dec 31, 2019.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Thiagesh Sukumaran and Tay Zhi Jie said that CCPS is a firm in the Certis Cisco group of companies.

Lee started working for the group in 2009 and was a business development manager with Certis Cisco Security from April 16 that year.

He was deployed to CCPS as a senior manager in January 2014.

In early 2017, CCPS started a new business model called the Resource Partner Scheme, in which the firm outsourced the provision of security services to third-party security agencies.

To do so, CCPS would sign a resource partnership agreement (RPA) with a third-party security agency and engage it as a resource partner to provide manpower to CCPS at agreed rates.

Lee was responsible for finding security agencies to sign RPAs with CCPS. He was also responsible for recommending resource partners to a panel in CCPS to perform the outsourced jobs.

Nazarisham was the director of Gates PCM Integrated Services (GPIS), a company in the business of providing security services.

After GPIS became a resource partner with CCPS, the pair engaged in conversations over WhatsApp, where Nazarisham occasionally boasted about his aggressive business plans, including gold mining and the performance of government contracts in Indonesia.

Lee then formed an impression that Nazarisham was very wealthy, based on these interactions.

In October 2017, Nazarisham set up a company called Scar Services, which provided security services. He and Razeez were shareholders of the firm.

Scar was later approved as a resource partner.

Lee, who was facing financial woes, then decided to obtain loans from Nazarisham to pay his bills.

Referring to Nazarisham as “Naza”, the DPPs said: “Alvin knew that Naza was likely to provide loans to him because he was representing CCPS and was in a position to advance the business interests of Scar with CCPS.

“Alvin also knew that it was a conflict of interest to obtain loans from Naza as Scar was (a resource partner) with CCPS.”

Some time around November 2017, Lee asked for a $15,000 loan from Nazarisham.

According to court documents, Nazarisham asked his wife to transfer the amount to Lee later that month.

The DPPs said that Lee asked for more loans from Nazarisham and Razeez after receiving the $15,000.

To date, Lee has returned more than $3,300 to Nazarisham.

Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light but all three Singaporean men were charged in court in 2021.

Lee’s bail was set at $50,000 on Tuesday and he is expected to surrender himself at the State Courts on Jan 2, 2024, to begin his jail term.