A former company boss who gave bribes of more than $500,000 to an Apple global supply manager to advance his business interest was jailed for nine months on Friday.
Chua Kim Guan alias Jacky Chua, 47, who founded Jin Li Mould of which he was managing director, had admitted to five of 14 charges of corruptly giving between US$30,000 and US$90,000 to Paul Shin Devine, then employed by the technology giant, between 2007 and 2009.
The total amount of bribes that Chua, who was executive chairman of listed JLJ Holdings, gave to Devine was US$387,699 (S$562,742). The amount in the proceeded charges was US$220,000 (S$314,116).
A district court heard that Devine, an American, had business dealings with Jin Li, which produces moulds and had been working with Apple since 2001.
When Devine came to Singapore to assess Jin Li in early 2006, Chua asked Devine to do him a favour by tipping him off on Apple's upcoming projects and giving Jin Li more business opportunities from Apple. In return, Chua offered to give Devine bribes for all the projects awarded to his company. Sometime later, Devine agreed to the offer in return for advancing the business interest of Jin Li with Apple.
Investigation showed that Chua would withdraw the amount for the bribes to be given from his personal Singapore dollar bank account and have it changed into US currency for Devine. He would ask his brother-in-law, then sales director Andrew Ang Kok Kiat, 38, to liaise with Devine and arrange to meet him in Singapore, US, China or Macau to hand him the bribes.
When Ang left the company in May 2009, Chua handed the bribes to Devine personally. Investigation showed that Chua gave bribes totalling US$220,000 to Devine in Macau and US.
Devine disclosed to various employees of Jin Li confidential information such as Apple's upcoming projects and quotations that Jin Li's competitors had submitted.
Devine was indicted in the US Federal Court and had pleaded guilty in February 2011. He has yet to be sentenced. Ang has been charged and his case is pending.
