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16.2%
Biomedical output, which accountsfor the second-largest share ofoutput after electronics, slumpedby that much year on year.
The electronics sector expanded bythat much year on year, thanks tothe semiconductor industry.
Mount Sinabung spewing thick ash during its eruption as seen from Tiga Pancur village, in Karo district of North Sumatra, yesterday. Indonesia, which sits on a belt of seismic activity running around thebasin of the Pacific Ocean, is home to around 130 active volcanoes. Eruptions regularly disrupt air travel around the archipelago. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Volcano erupts in Sumatra
9.7%
Grace Leong
Two former senior executives ofshipbuilder ST Marine have admit-ted to giving bribes in one of thelargest corruption scandals in cor-porate Singapore.
The men, who were facing morethan 1,700 charges, pleaded guiltyto one count of giving bribes.
Both men, who were at the cen-tre of the scandal, have also plead-ed guilty to 49 counts each of con-spiring to use bogus entertainmentexpense claims to cover up bribes.A third executive is on trial.
Former senior vice-presidentMok Kim Whang, 65, former presi-dent of commercial business TanMong Seng, 65, and former chiefoperating officer and deputy presi-dent Han Yew Kwang, 58, alleged-ly conspired to make more than$6.5 million in false entertainmentexpense entries in the firm’s petty
cash voucher system. The allegedplot took place between 2000 and2009. They were charged withcorruption in December 2014 andJuly last year.
Mok, who faced 826 charges ofconspiring to make false entertain-ment expense claims of $3.13 mil-lion and making $5,000 in fraudu-lent claims on his own, pleadedguilty to 49 charges on Wednesday.
Mok also pleaded guilty to onecount of violating the Preventionof Corruption Act when he con-spired to give bribes to employeesof ST Marine’s customers to securemore ship-repair contracts. The re-maining 777 charges will be takeninto consideration for sentencing.
Han, who faced 475 charges in-volving corruption and $1.86 mil-lion in false entertainment claims,pleaded guilty on May 10 to one cor-ruption charge and 49 charges ofconspiring to use false entries tomask bribes. The remaining charg-
es against him will be taken intoconsideration for sentencing.
Both Mok and Han will besentenced at a later date in thelong-running case that hasgrabbed headlines here.
Tan, who faces 445 charges ofconspiring to make false entertain-ment expense claims amounting to$1.6 million, is in the midst of a trialthat began on Tuesday.
Investigations show the threemen had been aware of the prac-tice of paying bribes to get busi-ness since 2000. This was ap-proved by Mr See Leong Teck, thenpresident of ST Marine. Recordsseized from the unit of conglomer-ate ST Engineering show at least$24.9 million in bribes was paidfrom 2000 to 2011.
According to the prosecution’sstatement of facts – a document set-ting out details of Mok’s offences,to which he had to admit withoutreservation – employees of STMarine’s customers would ask for“commissions” or bribes in returnfor giving ship-repair contracts andother business to the company.
After getting approval from keymembers of ST Marine’s seniormanagement, the officers who
made the bribes would submit “en-tertainment expense” claims usingpetty cash vouchers.
For instance, in one of Mok’scharges, some $4,800 in “enter-tainment expense reimburse-ments for the captain, chief officer,operation manager and chief engi-neer” of a ship called the Crown Od-yssey were approved by Mok andTan, and paid on March 14, 2003.
To avoid suspicion, bribes over$5,000 – the upper limit on pettycash payments – were split into aseries of petty cash claims inamounts below $5,000 each. Butthese claims were not submittedwith receipts or invoices.
Despite the lack of supportingdocuments, the claims for “enter-tainment expenses” were ap-proved by Mok, Tan or Han andthen processed by the finance de-partment which would preparepay orders and issue cheques forthe claims. These cheques wouldbe encashed and given as bribes.
The three men are among sevenformer ST Marine senior execu-tives who have been charged overgraft or falsification of accounts.
Rennie Whang
Manufacturing had a rough start tothe second half of the year withweak global demand continuing toweigh on factory output.
The sector, which makes up afifth of the economy, shrank 3.6per cent in July compared with thesame month last year, much worsethan economists’ expectations of0.8 per cent growth.
The numbers from the EconomicDevelopment Board yesterday arethe latest in a series of dismal eco-nomic data and follow recent tradefigures that showed a 10.6 per centdrop in non-oil domestic exportslast month.
All key clusters posted declines inoutput, except the electronics sec-tor which expanded 16.2 per centyear on year thanks to the semicon-ductor industry.
“The electronics cluster is riding
on the low base in the same periodlast year. Whichever way you lookat it, the numbers look bleak,” saidDBS senior economist Irvin Seah.
Biomedical output, which ac-counts for the second-largest shareof output after electronics,slumped 9.7 per cent year on year.
Excluding biomedical manufac-turing, which had propelled overalloutput in the first half of the year,factory production fell 2 per cent.
“Now that pharmaceuticalproduction has subsided, we areseeing a clearer picture of Singa-pore's weak manufacturing envi-ronment this year,” noted HSBCeconomist Joseph Incalcaterra.
Chemicals output dropped 3.2per cent year on year last month,while precision engineering de-clined 4.9 per cent and general man-ufacturing – including printing andfood and beverages – fell 10.2 percent.
Transport engineering postedthe largest plunge of 21.8 per cent,dragged down by marine andoffshore engineering amid low oilprices.
Yesterday’s figures show alsothat manufacturing output – ex-cluding biomedical – slumped 2.5per cent in the first seven monthsof this year compared with thesame period last year.
Domestic manufacturing growthcould contract by 1.7 per cent yearon year in the third quarter, revers-ing the 1.1 per cent “growth blip”seen in the second quarter, saidOCBC economist Selena Ling.
“Manufacturing has been under-performing for a prolonged periodand there really is no quick turna-round in sight due to the weak glo-bal demand and China slowdown,”she said.
And should such sub-par manu-facturing performance persist,there could be a gross domesticproduct contraction in the thirdquarter, Mr Seah of DBS added.
Mr Jeremy Fong, managing direc-tor of Fong’s Engineering, said busi-ness from clients in the medical in-dustry continues to grow, but tradeon the non-medical side – includ-ing oil and gas, electronics and de-fence sectors – is poor.
“Thankfully, the medical industrynow accounts for over 95 per centof my revenue,” said Mr Fong, whois also chairman of the SingaporePrecision Engineering and Technol-ogy Association. “But other firms inmy trade may not be doing so well.Those serving the oil and gas sectorsay things are getting worse.”
Selina Lum
Using a simple trick of stickingdouble-sided adhesive tape ontheir palms, a trio from China stolemore than $100,000 worth of chipsfrom patrons at the casinos in Mari-na Bay Sands (MBS) and ResortsWorld Sentosa (RWS).
After their three-week theftspree, two of them – Zhou Haiming,41, and Luo Jianguo, 37 – left forChina but returned to Singapore 11days later with the intention of lin-ing their pockets again.
The pair were arrested while try-ing to enter the MBS casino. Severalpieces of ready-cut double-sidedtape were found on them.
Zhou and Luo were initially sen-tenced to 18 months’ jail by a dis-trict court in May after each plead-ed guilty to one count of criminalconspiracy to commit theft and oneof removing criminal proceeds.
But yesterday, the High Court in-creased their respective sentencesto two years’ jail after an appeal bythe prosecution.
The pair’s appeals for lighter sen-tences were dismissed.
The third member of their team,Huang Xiaomei, remains at large.
The court heard that Zhou andLuo, who are from Jiangxi provincein China, were told by a friend thathe knew someone – Huang – who“earns a lot of money at the casinoin Singapore”. Huang later contact-ed Luo through messaging appWeChat.
Zhou and Luo arrived in Singa-pore on social visit passes onSept 18 last year.
Three days later, they met Huangat the MBS casino, where she toldthem they could make money bystealing casino chips.
Back at her rented place, Huangtaught them how to pick up chipsusing double-sided tape stuck ontheir palms.
Between Sept 21 and Oct 12 lastyear, the trio worked together, withone person “palming” the chipswhile the others distracted thedealer and the victim.
To avoid getting caught, theytargeted patrons who placed largebets using a whole stack of chips.
The trio had a success rate of 95per cent.
The thefts of $100,225 worth ofchips, on 284 different occasions,were not detected. Neither wereanother 13 occasions of attemptedtheft.
They stole from more than 60 ca-sino patrons.
Zhou and Luo gave Huang 20 percent of the value of their loot.
When the duo returned to Chinaon Oct 13 last year, Zhou had about$1,000 and 6,800 yuan (S$1,380)with him while Luo was carrying4,500 yuan.
They returned to Singapore onOct 24 and were arrested on thesame day.
The prosecution argued in its ap-peal that 18 months was manifestlyinadequate to signal to recruiters inforeign countries that Singapore isnot a “soft target”, and to reflectthat the serial thefts were well-planned and skilfully executed .
Formerpresident ofcommercialbusiness TanMong Seng is inthe midst of atrial that beganon Tuesday.
Manufacturing shrinks inJuly amid weak demand
Factory output down 3.6%, faring far worsethan expectations; electronics only bright spot
Trio liftedcasino chipsworth over$100k with‘sticky palms’
Former seniorvice-presidentMok Kim Whanghas pleadedguilty and willbe sentenced ata later date.
Former chiefoperating officerand deputypresident HanYew Kwang alsopleaded guiltyand will besentenced later.
Two ex-ST Marine execs plead guiltyto bribery, making false expense claims
A12 TOPOFTHENEWS ●● | THE STRAITS TIMES | SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 2016 |
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