Man fined $56k for accepting bribes including $27k loan
A former employee of a firm handling construction projects was fined $56,000 on Nov 18 for accepting bribes, including a loan of more than $27,000, from the then managing director of a construction company.
Lee Yuet Heng, 74, will have to spend 112 days behind bars if he fails to pay the fine.
At the time of the offences in 2014, the Singaporean was a deputy project director at Hydrochem – a wholly owned subsidiary of water treatment firm Hyflux.
He had accepted the bribes from Chinese national Li Hongda, then the managing director of Zhengda Corp, to advance its business interests with Hydrochem.
On Aug 21, Lee pleaded guilty to two graft charges.
Li, then 59, was dealt with in court earlier and was fined $38,000.
Hyflux has made the headlines in recent years over unrelated charges involving its founder and former chief executive Olivia Lum Ooi Lin.
Lum, 63, was charged with violations under the Securities and Futures Act in November 2022 and her case is still pending.
In the current case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Suriya Prakash told the court in August that Hydrochem handled Hyflux’s construction projects.
In 2012, Hydrochem signed two contracts with Zhengda for the supply of items that included labour, material and equipment for reinforced concrete works.
At the time of the offences, Hydrochem was building a power plant in Tuas. Lee became a deputy project director in early 2014 and got to know Li soon after.
Around mid-2014, the men reached an agreement that Zhengda would hire Lee as a general manager after his Hydrochem contract expired.
The court heard that Zhengda had to perform additional work after it completed works linked to the two 2012 contracts.
Lee then told Li that Zhengda could inflate the prices charged for this additional work. Li told Zhengda’s contracts manager to liaise with Lee on the matter.
Meanwhile, Lee told a Hydrochem assistant manager to work with the contracts manager on the orders.
Zhengda then submitted a set of orders with inflated prices in June 2014, but the assistant manager did not submit any of those orders for approval.
Some time in 2014, Li paid for Lee’s air ticket to Hong Kong and settled the payment for Lee’s stay there. Court documents did not disclose the amount spent.
On or around Sept 11 that year, Li paid out more than $27,000 in loans to Lee.
In April 2015, Hyflux’s management conducted an investigation and found out that the price of a contract involving the repair of a roof had been inflated.
The company terminated Lee’s employment, and he joined Zhengda the following month.
The prosecutor had said that Hyflux did not suffer any losses as a result of the inflated prices.
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