Refrigeration bribes scandal leads to jail sentence

SINGAPORE: The director of a Singapore-based commercial and industrial refrigeration and air conditioning company has been sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment for her part in a US$700,00 corruption case.

Investigations by Singapore’s Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau found that Tam Yit Ngor, a 41-year-old director of Newair Engineering Group Pte Ltd, had given financial incentives to Li Chaoyun, a 50-year-old Singaporean male who was employed by Jurong Shipyard Pte Ltd (JSPL). Tam was said to have pad the money in return for advancing the business interests of Newair with JSPL.

Newair  was established in 2011 with Tam and Liu Li (Li Chaoyun’s wife) as directors. Li and Tam then used Newair to get business from JSPL with Li, then a section manager of the HVAC sub-unit at the Engineering Department of JSPL, introducing and recommending Newair to JSPL as a supplier for HVAC products. This is said to have resulted in a total sales volume of approximately SGD34.2m (US$24.6m) from 2011 to 2014. In return, Tam gave financial incentives of approximately SGD960,000 (US$690,000) to Li. These gratifications came in the form of Newair’s shares, cash monies and cheques issued to Liu Li.

Li was sentenced to 34 months’ imprisonment and a penalty of SGD956,600 (US$690,000). Tam was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment.