Ex-manager and firm he jumped ship to ordered to pay $880k in damages to his former employer

SINGAPORE - After a six-year High Court battle, a former senior manager was ordered to pay $445,686 in damages to his previous employer, an international IT firm, after he jumped ship to a rival firm.

Mr Voon South Shiong and Sunway Digital – the competitor that hired him – were also jointly ordered to pay another $433,742 to Mr Voon’s former employer 3D Infosystems in damages.

The court found both to have conspired against Mr Voon’s former employer, while Mr Voon was found to have breached his employment contract by making unauthorised payments, acting against his former employer during employment and soliciting former colleagues to join the competitor.

The nearly $880,000 in damages awarded by Justice Chan Seng Onn, a senior judge, on Sept 16 is one of the highest in recent years involving employment disputes.

In the decision, the court set out what employees cannot do when they join a competitor.

Justice Chan described the case as “one familiar to most companies: A trusted employee resigns and collaborates with a competitor, and in so doing, sweeps up with him a large swathe of his former employer’s clients and other employees”.

Mr Voon joined 3D Infosystems on April 9, 2007. At that time, the company was known as 3D Networks Singapore. His employment terms included a non-disclosure agreement and a conduct guide.

When he left the company in April 2018, he was part of the senior management team and was entrusted with managing clients and suppliers. He ran the firm’s sales team and had the authority to approve claims for reimbursements.

Court documents did not state what his previous salary was, but after he joined Sunway Digital, he earned $898,300 for 35 months from May 2018 to March 2021. This worked out to a monthly salary of about $25,700.

Some time in 2017, Mr Voon met a businessman, Mr Sng Sheau Huei, and both of them discussed Mr Sng’s plan to set up a new digital transformation business. Mr Voon then sent Mr Sng business plans from October to December 2017. Mr Sng incorporated Sunway Digital in January 2018 as its sole chief executive and director. The business plans were to become a key point of dispute.

Mr Voon quitting 3D Infosystems in April 2018 also coincided with the departure of nine employees between March and August 2018. Eight of them subsequently joined Sunway Digital.

On July 25, 2018, 3D Infosystems sued Mr Voon and Sunway Digital in the High Court. It accused Mr Voon of breaching his employment contract and duties, and both him and Sunway Digital of conspiracy and inducing its employees to quit.

After a hearing spanning 26 days between November 2020 and December 2021, the court on July 18, 2022, found Mr Voon liable for a long list of infractions including fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of confidence and conspiring with Sunway Digital. The court also found the competitor firm liable for conspiracy and inducing 3D Infosystems’ employees to resign.

But it was a bittersweet victory for 3D Infosystems: While it was able to persuade the court to pin liability on Mr Voon and Sunway Digital in some areas, it failed in others. For example, the court said 3D Infosystems did not produce evidence on its claims that some of the reimbursement claims approved by Mr Voon were fraudulent.

With liability settled, the High Court then held another 13 days of hearing in March, April, June and July 2024 to decide on the damages to be paid to 3D Infosystems.

It applied some novel methods to determine the amounts.

Of the almost $880,000 it awarded to 3D Infosystems, the biggest sum was $269,510 related to a Singapore Power (SP) project valued at about $2.5 million. 3D Infosystems narrowly lost its bid to Sunway Digital after Mr Voon disclosed his former employer’s pricing strategy to his new employer.

“On a balance of probabilities, I am satisfied that (3D Infosystems) would likely have secured the SP project but for the defendants’ breaches and conspiracy,” said Justice Chan, referring to Mr Voon and Sunway Digital as the defendants.

The $269,510 award was the estimated profit both made in the project, which the court said should be given to 3D Infosystems.

It also ordered Mr Voon to pay his former employer $185,904 – which is the difference between what Sunway Digital paid him ($898,300) for 35 months and what the court assessed to be the value of his actual work ($712,396). The difference was the personal “profit” he made by using confidential information to prepare business plans to help Sunway Digital get up and running, and this “profit” should be “disgorged” and given to 3D Infosystems as well, the court said.

For poaching 3D Infosystems employees, the court ordered Mr Voon to pay $122,356, and both Mr Voon and Sunway Digital to pay another $147,283.

While the remaining amounts of damages are smaller for breaches such as unauthorised payments and leaking internal manuals, one stands out.

From June 29 to July 3, 2015, Mr Voon made some 3D Infosystems staff sell fruit juice and prepare marketing materials for a side hustle he had set up in July 2014, under the pretext of building teamwork.

“I found this ‘team-building exercise’ to be a farce concocted by (Mr Voon) to divert (3D Infosystems’) employees to benefit his own business,” said Justice Chan. For this ruse, Mr Voon was ordered to pay $38,212 to his former employer, which is the salary of the staff who spent time on the juice business during their working hours.

3D Infosystems was represented by Harry Elias Partnership and Sunway Digital by Loo & Partners. IRB Law and Rex Legal Law Corporation represented Mr Voon at different stages of the court case.

The decision on Sept 16 brought to a close a low-key but lengthy legal battle between Mr Voon, his former employer 3D Infosystems and the rival Sunway Digital.

An Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) check on Sept 20 found 3D Infosystems operating from Shaw House in Orchard Road and Sunway Digital from a commercial building in MacPherson.

Mr Voon, listed in Acra records as a Brunei national, is still the sole shareholder and director of the side hustle selling fruit juice. But there is no trace of him in social media accounts and online.