Shaffiq Alkhatib

A former director at Resorts WorldSentosa (RWS) was jailed for 14months yesterday for receiving$317,000 in bribes.

Soh Yew Meng, 38, who was inthe building enhancement depart-ment, had accepted money fromrepresentatives of various compa-nies between July 22, 2013, and Jan15, 2014, in exchange for helpingthem secure business deals withthe integrated resort.

He had pleaded guilty last monthto three counts of corruption involv-ing $315,000.

Four other charges – one count ofaccepting $2,000 in bribes andthree counts of attempting to ob-tain bribes of unspecified amounts– were taken into considerationduring sentencing.

Soh admitted he sought from themanaging director of ShanghaiChong Kee Furniture and Construc-

tion, Mr Tan Ken Huat, 60, a cor-rupt payment of between 3 per centand 5 per cent of the tender quota-tion if the firm won the tender forthe Festive Hotel project at RWS.

In return, Soh would provide MrTan, whose firm specialises in inte-rior contract work, with informa-tion on how much Shanghai ChongKee’s competitors would be bid-ding for the project.

The court heard that Soh had orig-inally approached Shanghai ChongKee’s subcontractor, mechanicaland electrical works companySuperiortec, with the offer.

Superiortec director Teo WeeLiap, 37, then referred him to MrTan, who agreed to give Soh$300,000.

On July 8, 2013, a contract for theFestive Hotel project was awardedat a sum of $8.9 million to ShanghaiChong Kee which, in turn, awardedSuperiortec with the mechanicaland electrical works portion of theproject for a sum of $2.9 million.

Mr Teo later encashed twocheques collected from ShanghaiChong Kee for $150,000 andpassed the money to Soh’s girl-friend, Ms Tan Siow Hui, 33.

The following month, Ms Tantook $106,200 of the money, de-posited it in her own bank ac-counts and used about $104,600 topay for a unit at the Chestervalecondominium in Bukit Panjang un-der her name. Ms Tan and Soh lat-er lived there.

Between Dec 23, 2013, and Jan 15,2014, Mr Teo prepared another pay-ment of $150,000 for Soh, whichwas derived from Shanghai ChongKee’s payments to Superiortec forthe sub-contract.

Soh also received $15,000 inbribes from the director of glassand aluminium works company

Beyond Builders, Mr Tan ChoonHung, 43, between Nov 11 and 19 in2013. In return, Soh helped awardRWS’ Asian Cafe project to BeyondBuilders for a sum of $620,000 onNov 19, 2013.

The Corrupt Practices Investiga-tion Bureau gave Ms Tan a sternwarning last month and she was giv-en a discharge not amounting to anacquittal in court yesterday, whichmeans she can be prosecuted ifnew evidence were to surface.

Investigations are still ongoingfor the cases involving Mr Teo, MrTan Ken Huat and Mr Tan ChoonHung.

For each count of corruption, Sohcould have been jailed up to fiveyears and fined up to $100,000.

ashaffiq@sph.com.sg

He made plans to meet to buy con-traband cigarettes – but changedhis mind and decided to steal theminstead. Former logistics coordina-tor Guan Qiuqiang, 29, thenpunched the seller’s face when thelatter tried to take his photo.

The seller called police and offi-cers arrested Guan, who contin-ued dealing in contraband ciga-rettes while out on bail over the in-cident.

Guan was jailed for two yearsand eight months on Tuesday, af-ter pleading guilty to three countsof dealing in the cigarettes andone count of causing hurt.

Three other counts of dealing incontraband cigarettes were takeninto consideration during sentenc-ing.

The court heard that in Decem-ber 2015 and November last year,Guan illegally dealt in 525,920sticks of cigarettes in 2,624 car-tons and 56 packets.

They were worth more than$292,000. In all, the duty unpaidwas $204,056.96. Guan did notpay the $20,467.32 of goods andservices tax either.

On Dec 22, 2015, Guan and twofriends planned to meet the sellerat the void deck of Block 412, AngMo Kio Avenue 10. While on theway, Guan changed his mind anddecided to steal the items fromhim.

When they reached their desti-nation, one of Guan’s friends triedto scare the seller away so that hiscompanions could steal the wares.

The seller ran away but returnedsoon after and tried to snap a pic-

ture of Guan with his mobilephone.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ken-neth Kee said: “The accused triedto prevent the victim from takinghis photo by pushing the victim’sphone away.

“With intention to cause hurt,the accused then punched the vic-tim once on the left side of hisface.”

When the police were alerted,officers who turned up found 181cartons and 40 packets of contra-band cigarettes at the void deck.

While he was out on bail, Cus-toms officers caught Guan dealingwith 1,982 cartons and 16 packetsof contraband cigarettes in BurohCrescent, near Boon Lay, on Nov 11last year.

Five days later, officers caughthim dealing in 461 cartons at a sub-station in Yishun Avenue 11.

The court heard that Guan hadordered the cigarettes from a sup-plier in China and intended to sellthem for a profit. There were no de-tails on how he ordered the ciga-rettes.

Customs Prosecuting Officer Jo-siah Zee said the seller whomGuan assaulted has abscondedand a warrant of arrest has been is-sued against him.

For assault, Guan could havebeen jailed for up to two years andfined up to $5,000. And for deal-ing in contraband cigarettes, hecould have been jailed for up tothree years and fined on eachcharge.

Shaffiq Alkhatib

Jailed for dealing incontraband cigarettes– and hitting supplier

Soh wasworking inthe buildingenhancementdepartment ofRWS when heapproachedvarious firmsfor corruptpayments.ST PHOTO: WONGKWAI CHOW

Annika Mock

Mr Wesley Sim was just beginninghis six-month internship at the Cen-tral Narcotics Bureau (CNB) whenhe learnt of a problem the agencywas grappling with. When asuspect’s phone is seized, its datacan be wiped via an external re-mote, leaving investigators with noevidence to work with.

The Temasek Polytechnic (TP)digital forensics student worked ondeveloping a device that could blockout phone signals and prevent theloss of evidence from a criminal’sphone. Mr Sim experimented with

different conductive metals to cre-ate a prototype, and also enhancedthe final product with a built-in ex-traction tool as a fail-safe.

According to his supervisor at TP,DrYap Chern Nam, CNB may consid-er developing the box for future use.

Mr Sim, 21, who aspires to be a fo-rensics analyst, said: “I see a needfor a device like this as criminalsare getting more IT-savvy and theyare trying to find new ways to cir-cumvent the law.”

His invention was one of the 41 fi-nal-year projects by students fromTP’s School of Informatics and ITshowcased at the school’s InfoTechDay on campus yesterday.

The theme of the showcase thisyear was Disruptive Technologies:Threats And Opportunities.

Another project that aims to tack-le evolving security threats is Clair-voyance, a behavioural analysistool that detects unusual activity invirtual files and comes up with sig-natures that can block it.

The brains behind it, digital foren-sics student Chan Jian Hao, plans tobecome a malware reverse engineerand develop Singapore’s cyber de-fence technology.

ST Electronics, where the19-year-old interned last year, is us-ing Clairvoyance in its Security Op-eration Centre .

The showcase also includedprojects such as MagixHome, a vir-tual reality (VR) application whichgives home buyers an immersive ex-ploration of home design.

Speaking on behalf of thethree-man team, game design stu-dent Benedict Low said: “Ourproject connects designers andhome owners. When designerscome up with a floor plan, thehome owners can view it in VR.”

The team developed MagixHomewith SKY Optimum Technology, aninteractive technology companywhich has adopted the applicationfor commercial use.

On his personal takeaway fromthe experience, Mr Sim said: “Theentire project was an invaluablelearning opportunity for me to prac-tise and gain technical skills andcompetency in digital forensics.

“My motivation comes from mypassion for the subject and my com-mitment to fighting crime.”

amock@sph.com.sg

Clockwise fromtop left: Digitalforensics studentChan Jian Hao, 19,who designedbehaviouralanalysis toolClairvoyance;(from left)studentsWong Qin Liang,Benedict Low andYan Zhan Jie, whodeveloped theMagixHomesoftware; digitalforensics studentWesley Sim, 21,who designed theradio-frequencyshielding boxthat blocksphone signals.ST PHOTOS:CAROLINE CHIA

Temasek Poly studentstackle evolving tech needs

Some of the students’ ideas

Cases involved three firms and $317k, part ofwhich was used by girlfriend to pay for condo

Temasek Polytechnic’s annual InfoTech Dayshowcased 41 final-year projects by graduatingstudents from the School of Informatics andIT.

The projects were grouped under three areasof focus: growth and opportunities in artificialintelligence and analytics, next-generation se-curity evolution, and the future of technology.

Students’ innovations included a portal forscam reporting called “ScamDefender”, whichcould be the beginning of a more vigilant com-munity against online scams.

Another project on display, “Posturiser”, is amobile game that adopts a creative approachto promoting good posture. The game was de-veloped with KK Women’s and Children’s Hos-pital.

Two students also worked with the HousingBoard to create the Smart Distribution Board,which connects a household’s electrical distri-bution board to a smartphone to track energy us-age throughout the day.

Former RWSdirector jailed14 months fortaking bribes

| THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017 | THE STRAITS TIMES | HOME B11

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