General manager fined $25k, made to pay penalty of $10k for graft
A supplier's offer to "take care" of Yeoh Kay Poh's colleagues by footing the group's bill at a KTV lounge opened the way for Yeoh, the general manager of a shipping supply company, to accept regular bribes.
Between 2011 and 2013, Yeoh, 62, accepted bribes totalling about $10,000 from Tan Chee Keong in exchange for doing business with Hai Hup Huat, which Tan ran.
Yeoh, who worked at Kobe-Tonghin, spent the ill-gotten gains on KTV sessions and lunches for himself and his boarding officers.
On Friday (Feb 11), Yeoh was fined $25,000 on one charge of corruption and also had to pay a penalty of $10,000.
The court heard that Tan, 52, has been jailed for his offences.
Tan was the director and chief executive of Hai Hup Huat entities, which provided stevedore or boat services to shipping agencies, ship owners as well as maritime companies, to transport passengers or cargo between the shore and vessels.
Yeoh was in charge of the boarding officers in Kobe-Tonghin, which provided shipping supplies and restocking services for ship owners and shipping management companies.
Its boarding officers were responsible for resupplying these ships and would order supply boats to transport the supplies to the ships.
Sometime in 2011, Tan met Yeoh in a KTV bar with a group of his boarding officers.
Tan settled the bill for Yeoh and his boarding officers, saying that he wanted to "take care" of the boarding officers.
He then offered to give Yeoh "a little something" to "take care" of the officers at Kobe-Tonghin, and Yeoh, understanding this to be a bribe, agreed.
Subsequently, Yeoh would go to Hai Hup Huat's office to receive envelopes containing cash.
Between 2011 and 2013, Yeoh accepted bribes totalling about $10,000 from Tan on 29 occasions.
"These were in fact corrupt gratification to induce the accused to continue to use (Hai Hup Huat's) supply boat services in the future," Deputy Public Prosecutor Andrew Chia told the court.
For accepting bribes, Yeoh could have been fined up to $100,000, jailed up to five years, or both.
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