Jail for factory manager who worked with colleagues to cheat firm of over $451k

SINGAPORE — A factory manager and three of his colleagues worked together to cheat their employer of more than $451,000 by submitting inflated and fictitious claims.

At the time of the offences, Teoh Chwin Tzen, Jennifer Chiang Lai Fah, Teo Heng Song and Quek Chee Meng were working for carpentry firm Kai Millwork.

Teoh also cheated multiple people, including two of his other colleagues, of more than $6,000. Among other things, he claimed that the pair had to pay for "quarantine fees" that did not exist.

In addition, the Malaysian accepted more than $50,000 in bribes from representatives of different firms to advance the business interest of their companies with Kai Millwork.

On Aug 5, Teoh, 42, was sentenced to two years, 10 months and 10 weeks' jail.

He was ordered to pay a penalty of more than $50,000 and will have to spend an additional eight weeks behind bars if he fails to fork out the amount.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of cheating involving nearly $310,000. He also pleaded guilty to four graft charges linked to more than $43,000.

Fourteen other charges, including multiple other counts of cheating and graft linked to the remaining amount, were considered during sentencing. He has made no restitution for his cheating offences.

In March, Chiang, then 37, was sentenced to 10 months' jail. Court documents did not disclose the outcome of Quek and Teo's cases.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nicole Teo told the court that in 2021, Teoh suggested to Chiang that they could cheat Kai Millwork.

As part of the plan, he would falsify invoices or instruct someone else to do so on his behalf.

The documents would claim that certain freelancers had purportedly done some work, when in fact it was performed by Kai Millwork's own employees.

Teoh would send the falsified documents to Chiang, who would then approve the invoices and payments to the freelancers.

After that, the freelancers would transfer cash to Teoh, either directly to him or through Chiang.

Through the scheme, Teoh approved falsified invoices in the name of one Noel Chan for works which were not done by the latter.

The DPP said: "Payments were made from the company to Noel's bank account. Noel was (Chiang's friend and he was) unaware of the scheme.

"(He) had agreed to receive monies from the company as (Chiang had deceived him) as to the purpose of these money transfers."

On 15 occasions from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2022, Teoh engaged in a conspiracy with Chiang to cheat Kai Millwork of nearly $172,000.

In early 2021, he also cheated two of its employees of $4,400 in cash after telling the pair that they had to pay "quarantine fees". Court documents did not disclose details about these purported fees.

Separately, around January 2022, Teoh told Teo and Quek to send falsified and inflated invoices to the firm for their commission payments.

Teoh then approved these invoices, and according to court documents, the company gave payments totalling more than $133,000 to Teo and Quek, in excess of what the pair were actually owed.

According to court documents, Teoh received 75 per cent of the ill-gotten gains while the other two men retained the remainder.

The DPP said that over six occasions from January to December 2022, Teoh also accepted more than $31,000 in bribes from one Li Junjie, who was the director of a firm called Kia Meng Trading at the time.

In 2022, Kai Millwork awarded jobs worth more than $81,000 to Kia Meng Trading.

Teoh also accepted bribes from the representatives of three other firms — Orbitez, Black Interior and Limited Sofa Manufacturer.

[[nid:688046]]

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.