3 men ordered to pay fines totalling $77,000 for graft

Three men involved in different corruption cases linked to various organisations, including Pan Pacific Retail Management, Sephora Asia and HomeTeamNS, were fined $77,000 in total on March 11.

Tan Han Leong, 45, who was the owner and director of alarm systems provider Secured Retail Solutions (SRS) at the time of the offences, received the highest fine of $33,000 after he pleaded guilty to two graft charges involving more than $11,000.

Six other charges were considered during sentencing.

The second man, Tan Chee Heng, 64, was a director at renovation firm Design Delta at the time of the offences.

He was fined $32,000 after admitting to two graft charges involving $12,500.

Two other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The third man, Juraimee Ab Hamid, 48, was a senior operations executive at HomeTeam NS when he accepted bribes totalling $2,800.

He pleaded guilty to a graft charge and was fined $12,000. He was ordered to pay a penalty of $2,800 – the amount of bribes he accepted.

The three Singaporeans were among 16 people charged in January with corruption in relation to advertisement and servicing contracts.

For Tan Han Leong’s case, Deputy Public Prosecutors Tay Jia En and June Ngian stated in court documents that SRS became a security panel contractor for retailer Don Don Donki some time before 2018.

Another firm, identified as Pan Pacific Retail Management, a holding company of Pan Pacific International Holdings, was in the business of developing Don Don Donki stores in Singapore.

In 2018, a man known as Muhammmadd Fauzi Abdul Rahman, 41, joined Pan Pacific Retail Management and became a store planning manager.

Referring to Tan Han Leong as “Han”, the DPPs told the court: “Some time in 2020, Fauzi began to message Han requesting monetary loans from Han.

“Fauzi told Han that he had started an F&B business registered under the name Localicious Cafe – also known as Hideout Cafe – some time in 2020, and the business was making a huge loss.”

According to court documents, Tan Han Leong then lent Fauzi a total of more than $9,000 over eight occasions between August 2021 and January 2022.

The prosecutors said Tan Han Leong understood that Fauzi could exclude SRS as a vendor for Don Don Donki projects.

They added that he did not want to offend Fauzi and agreed to give him the loans without asking for repayments.

In an unrelated case, court documents stated that Tan Han Leong also worked with a then SRS sales consultant to give more than $2,000 in bribes to Benjamin Ting Peng Lin, 35, who was an IT executive with Fei Siong Food Management at the time.

Tan Han Leong committed the offence in August 2021 to advance SRS’ business with Fei Siong.

Separately, Tan Chee Heng gave $12,500 in bribes to Low Kim Yong, 44, who was then an assistant project manager at Sephora Asia, which provides personal care products.

The DPPs told the court that Tan Chee Heng gave the bribes to Low in 2020 and 2021 as a reward for advancing Design Delta’s business with Sephora Asia.

In another case, Juraimee was working for HomeTeamNS, a non-profit organisation that provides clubhouses for the use of NSmen, when he accepted $2,800 in bribes between 2018 and 2021.

The DPPs said the cash came from Tan Wee Meng, 45, who was then a project supervisor at air-conditioning service provider BuildCool Engineering.

The prosecutors added: “Some time in 2017 or 2018, Juraimee and (Tan Wee Meng) entered into an arrangement where (Tan Wee Meng) would give Juraimee ‘kopi’ or ‘angbao’ (hongbao) money.

“Juraimee admitted to investigators that he was receiving such monies... because he helped (Tan Wee Meng) make his work easier... and for referring work to BuildCool.”

Court documents did not disclose the outcome of the cases involving Fauzi, Ting, Low and Tan Wee Meng.