Top executive jailed 14 years for cheating
She used personal gains of more than $5m to buy properties, luxury goods, car
A former asset management vice-president of UE ServiceCorp Singapore, Linda Lee, was jailed for 14 years yesterday for cheating offences involving more than $10 million.
The facilities management company is a subsidiary of United Engineers (UEL).
Lee, now 39, made personal gains totalling more than $5m.
She used some of the proceeds of her criminal activities to buy multiple properties, luxury goods and a car.
Yesterday, the court heard that only about $2.1m could potentially be recovered. The $900,000 recovered through the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau's seizure and recovery efforts is part of that.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jasmin Kaur told District Judge Tan Jen Tse that the amount which could potentially be recovered from the local properties Lee bought is about $1.2m.
She added that the lawyers from Lee's former company are still in negotiations with banks and developers on the final amount.
On Aug 31, Lee pleaded guilty to 28 cheating charges and seven counts of converting the proceeds of her criminal activities by buying the big-ticket items.
Another 325 charges for similar offences were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Lee committed the offences between 2010 and 2015. She was fired from her job in June 2015.
According to court documents, she worked with four accomplices, whose cases are still pending.
Among her offences, Lee set up LT Engineering Consultancy in 2011 under the name of her father, Mr Lee Foo Wah.
She told her unsuspecting father that the firm would be doing general works when, in fact, its sole purpose was to siphon money from UEL.
Lee caused UEL to make payments to LT Engineering 25 times; the total amount paid was more than $1.7m.
She also created fictitious jobs and submitted false quotations which were rigged such that the jobs were awarded to a construction firm called Ying Xin Services.
After payment was made to Ying Xin Services, Tan Aik Gee, a manager with the firm and one of Lee's alleged accomplices, would keep half for himself and give the remainder to Lee.
Lee also used a similar method for jobs to be awarded to companies set up by another accomplice.
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