Man jailed for duping employer and its sister firm into paying over $5.1m to companies linked to him

SINGAPORE – An assistant shipping manager at a construction firm duped his employer and its sister company into making payments totalling over $5.1 million to other companies linked to him.

Hussain Naina Mohamed, a 47-year-old Indian national, was sentenced to 30 months’ jail on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to nine counts of cheating involving more than $2.5 million and one count of moving a portion of his ill-gotten gains out of Singapore.

Sixteen other charges, including those involving the remaining amount, were considered during sentencing.

The payments took place between 2009 and 2019, causing at least $500,000 in losses to Utracon Corporation.

Hussain worked for construction firm Utracon Structural Systems, which is part of Utracon Corporation, until January 2019.

As an assistant shipping manager, his responsibilities included making vendor recommendations to his superiors. He also helped Utracon Overseas, which is also part of Utracon Corporation, with similar tasks.

Among other things, Hussain failed to inform his employer that he was a partner at a company called Al Rahman Enterprises & Trading (Aret).

Instead, he recommended Aret to be his employer’s vendor for marine insurance as well as freight-forwarding services.

Hussain also recommended to his superiors his father’s firm, SM Enterprises (SME), as a vendor to supply plastic components.

The prosecution said that Utracon would not have awarded jobs to these firms had it known about the blatant conflict of interest with regard to Hussain.

As the companies linked to Hussain did provide services to Utracon as its vendors, Utracon’s financial loss amounted to at least $500,000 as a result of the cheating. This loss included the illicit profit Hussain made from the offences.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jingxi said that Hussain and his sister were partners at Aret, which was registered in June 2009 and provided marine insurance as well as freight-forwarding services.

Hussain admitted that he had set up the firm solely to earn some cash from Utracon. He was also the only one making all business decisions for Aret while his sister was the “face” of the firm, said the prosecution. This was because he knew that he could not be seen by Utracon to be involved in Aret.

As a result of his dishonest concealment, Utracon was induced to award jobs to Aret and paid it more than $705,000.

In May 2011, Hussain approached Utracon’s director of Singapore operations and offered to source for an alternative supplier of plastic components that would purportedly offer better rates than its supplier at that time.

Hussain then liaised with an Indian company called Vijay Industries to fabricate the plastic parts that Utracon required, and arranged for his father’s firm, the India-registered SME, to export these plastic parts to Utracon.

Hussain did not tell the director that SME belonged to his father and that the plastic components were actually manufactured by Vijay Industries, with SME only marking up the prices.

As a result of Hussain’s dishonest concealment of facts, Utracon was induced to award jobs to SME and paid it more than $1.4 million.

Hussain also worked with a director of a firm called Indus Global Line (IGL) to cheat Utracon.

In 2011, the pair entered into an illicit agreement for IGL to submit inflated quotations to Utracon for freight-forwarding services, with Hussain determining the quantum of each mark-up. Hussain then validated all the inflated quotations before submitting them for Utracon’s approval. As a result, Utracon paid IGL nearly $375,000.

On six occasions between May 2014 and November 2017, Hussain removed from Singapore nearly $142,000 of his ill-gotten gains by methods that included engaging the services of local remittance agents. He later told investigators that he had sent the money to India to help cover his parents’ household expenses.

Hussain was initially charged with multiple counts of cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property. For each charge under this, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

He later admitted to cheating charges. For each charge under this, an offender can be jailed for up to three years and fined.

He was represented by lawyers Mohamed Ibrahim and Low Shi Hou from Achievers LLC.

They told The Straits Times: “The original charges risked a 48 months’ jail sentence. With the current 30 months’ sentence, he would be released after serving 20 months, factoring in a discount for good behaviour.”

Mr Mohamed Ibrahim also said that Hussain has since made a full restitution of $500,000.