District Judge Soh Tze Bian:
Charges
On 24 August 2012, the accused person (AP), male/ 49, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty before me to the following 3 charges: In DAC 22983/2012, the AP, on a day in November 2007, in Singapore, being an agent, to wit, the Vice President in the employ of Singapore Press Holdings and in charge of the Editorial Project Unit, did corruptly obtain for himself, a gratification of $10,000 from one Liaw Kim Chew, as a reward to do an act in relation to his principal's affairs, to wit, to ensure that Liaw Kim Chew be awarded business contracts from the said Editorial Project Unit of the Singapore Press Holdings, and he has thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241) with a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both. In DAC 22987/2012, the AP, on a day in September 2010, in Singapore, being an agent, to wit, the Senior Vice President in the employ of Singapore Press Holdings and in charge of the Editorial Project Unit, did corruptly obtain for himself, a gratification of $30,000 from one Liaw Kim Chew, as a reward to do an act in relation to his principal's affairs, to wit, to ensure that Liaw Kim Chew be awarded with the business contract of supplying 100,000 'coin banks' to the said Editorial Project Unit of Singapore Press Holdings, and he has thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241) with a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to both. In DAC 22922/2012, the AP between 5 August 2009 and 1 July 2010, in Singapore, being entrusted with dominion over certain property belonging to the Singapore Press Holdings, to wit, Capital Malls vouchers valued at $11,548, did commit criminal breach of trust (CBT) by dishonestly misappropriating to his own use the said vouchers, and he has thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 406 of the Penal Code, Cap 224 with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 7 years, or with fine, or with both.
The AP had also admitted to and consented to 6 other similar charges under section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241) in DAC 22980/2012, DAC 22981/2012, DAC 22982/2012, DAC 22984/2012, DAC 22985/2012 and DAC 22986/2012 as well as 1 other similar charge under section 406 of the Penal Code (Cap 224) in DAC 22921/2012 being taken into consideration for purposes of sentencing. The total gratification received by the AP in respect of all the 8 charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241) was $83,500.
Statement of facts
The statement of facts which the AP had admitted without qualification states as follows: “THE ACCUSED The Accused, Peter Khoo Chong Meng, is a 49 year old Chinese male. He was the Vice President of the Editorial Project Unit in Singapore Press Holdings ("SPH") from 2004 to 2009 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of the same unit in January 2010. His main duties were to manage the unit and assist the editors to improve the newspaper sales and circulation. FACTS RELATING TO DAC 22983 (4th charge) & 22987 (8th charge) OF 2012 Investigations revealed that the Accused was introduced by a mutual friend to one Richard Liaw Kim Chew ("Liaw"), the managing director for Sino British Industries Pte Ltd, Retro Development Pte Ltd, and Rifo Global Pte Ltd. Sometime in 2007, Liaw asked the Accused whether SPH had any business for his companies and the Accused told Liaw that he could bid for some jobs with SPH as it regularly ordered items such as T-shirts, pens, files and other items meant for gifts during SPH's promotional events. Liaw agreed to the Accused's suggestion. The Accused then told Liaw that he (meaning the Accused) could help him secure the business deals in return for a cut of the money earned from these contracts. Between November 2007 and September 2010, the Accused corruptly received gratification in the form of cash as "commissions" from Liaw in connection with the contracts secured by Liaw's companies with SPH. Upon the Accused's request, Liaw would hand over the gratifications to the Accused in cash when they met in person. Sometime in November 2007, the Accused received $10,000 in cash from Liaw as a reward for one of Liaw's company's securing a contract with SPH (4th charge). This sum of $10,000 to be given to the Accused was decided by Liaw. Sometime in September 2010, the Accused received $30,000 in cash from Liaw as a reward for one of Liaw's company (Retro Development Pte Ltd) securing a contract with SPH (8th charge) worth $198,000 for the sale and purchase of 100,000 "coin-banks". The sum of $30,000 as gratification was requested by the Accused and Liaw agreed to the Accused's request because even after taking into account the bribe, Liaw still made close to $60,000 from this contract. On both abovementioned occasions, the Accused deposited the cash received into a POSB Savings Account bearing number 050-62471-4. Liaw gave the Accused the gratifications in question because he knew that the Accused was the approving authority for the procurement of promotional items in SPH and also because he hoped that the Accused would award contracts to him in the future. FACTS RELATING TO DAC 22922 OF 2012 (10th charge) The complainant is Han Fook Kwang, male/59 years old. He was the Editor of the Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings Pte Ltd (SPH) at the material time. The witness is Tai Jun An Daniel ("Daniel Tai"), male/30 years old, and he was the Senior Administration Assistant for SPH Editorial Project Unit (EPU) at the material time. FIRST INFORMATION REPORT On 14 September 2010 at 8.20 p.m. at Tanglin Police Division Hq, the complainant filed a police report against the Accused for the misappropriation of vouchers that were sponsored or purchased by SPH. Sometime on 12 September 2010, the Accused went to see the complainant and confessed that he had taken vouchers that was either sponsored or purchased by SPH for his personal use as well as receiving kickbacks from Liaw (as stated above). The Accused admitted that CapitaMalls Asia Ltd ('CapitaMalls') had been sponsoring Capita vouchers in $50 and $10 denominations every quarter of the year to EPU. These vouchers were meant to be given to readers for news tip-offs to SPH ST Newsline and could be redeemed at all participating retail stores and shopping centres under the management of CapitaMalls. Investigations revealed that the Accused was assisted by Daniel Tai in acquiring and distributing the vouchers from CapitaMalls and other establishments. Daniel Tai informed that the Accused had, from time to time requested for some of the CapitaMalls vouchers and Daniel Tai would pass these vouchers to the Accused whenever he asked for them, thinking that the Accused would distribute the vouchers for official purposes. Investigations revealed however that between 5 August 2009 and 1 July 2010, the Accused had used $11,548 worth of CapitaMalls vouchers to purchase items at various outlets under the management of CapitaMalls. The Accused admitted that the items redeemed were for his personal use. Restitution The Accused has surrendered the sum of $83,500, being the total sum received by him as gratification from Liaw. The Accused has also made full restitution of all the vouchers misappropriated by him. [Note: para 14 set out a list of 36 exhibits recovered and seized for the purpose of investigations] Conclusion The Accused has thereby committed two counts punishable under s6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act Cap 241 and one count punishable under s406 of the Penal Code Cap 224. He is charged accordingly.’(emphasis mine)
Sentence & penalty
After considering the mitigation plea dated 24/8/2012 and all the written submissions and replies of the parties on the appropriate sentence to be imposed on the AP (the last of which was filed on 30 November 2012), I sentenced the AP as follows:
| |
|
| Case No. | Fine & in default sentence |
| DAC 22983/2012 | $20,000 i/d 4 weeks imprisonment |
| DAC 22987/2012 | $50,000 i/d 10 weeks imprisonment |
| DAC 22922/2012 | $30,000 i/d 6 weeks imprisonment |
| Total fine | $100,000 i/d 20 weeks imprisonment |
Pursuant to section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Cap 241), I ordered the AP to pay a penalty of $83,500 (in default 16 weeks’ imprisonment) which was to be paid from the total sum of $83,500 received by the AP as gratification and which he had already surrendered to the relevant authorities. My reasons for the sentence and penalty were as follows.
Court’s reasons for the sentence
I agreed with the prosecution that the aggravating factors in the present case were as follows: The AP was part of SPH’s senior management team. At the time of the commission of these offences, he was the Vice-President of SPH’s Editorial Project Unit (EPU) from 2004 to 2009 before being promoted to Senior Vice-President of the EPU in 2010. The offences were committed over several years as the AP had corruptly accepted gratifications from July 2006 to September 2010 and dishonestly committed CBT from May 2007 to September 2010. The AP actively solicited for the corrupt bribes. In respect of the 4th charge, it was the AP who told the corrupt giver, Richard Liaw Kim Chew, that he (meaning the AP) could help Liaw secure business deals in return for a cut of the money earned from the contracts that the AP would ensure came to Liaw’s way. In respect of the 8th charge, it was the AP who demanded (and obtained) from Liaw the bribe quantum of $30,000. The AP breached his fiduciary duty and duty of loyalty to SPH, a listed company on the SGX. By corruptly obtaining bribes from a SPH vendor, the AP had breached his fiduciary duty in failing to look out for SPH’s best interests and in preferring his own...
