Former Singapore shipyard VP gets jail term, fine

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 — Singapore’s Straits Times today reports that a former senior vice president at ST Engineering’s shipbuilding division ST Marine has been sentenced to 20 weeks jail and a SGD 100,000 (about US$73,000) fine for his role in what the newspaper calls one of the largest corporate graft scandals in Singapore.

Mok Kim Whang, 65, who was the company’s senior vice-president from June 2000 to July 2004, is the third of seven former ST Marine senior executives charged in the case to be sentenced and the second to be given a jail term.

He had pleaded guilty to 50 out of 827 charges: one of graft and 49 of falsification of accounts.

The remaining 777 charges – all for falsification of accounts – were taken into account in sentencing.

The newspaper says that Deputy Presiding Judge of the State Courts Jennifer Marie noted that Mok did not pocket any money, but had continued a pre-existing practice at ST Marine to pay bribes to its customers’ employees, and to cover up the kickbacks with a false paper trail.

The judge also noted that Mok had pleaded guilty, was remorseful, and that “for an older person … the shame of going to prison is indeed a grave punishment.”

Read the Straits Times report HERE