Company director and five managers charged over alleged corruption, money laundering, CBT
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(Clockwise from top left) Loy Hwee Kiat, Shin Hyungjun, Seo Myoungsoo and Puah Bun Shong at the State Courts on April 21.
ST PHOTOS: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – Six men were hauled to court on April 21 and handed charges for several offences, including money laundering, criminal breach of trust (CBT) and corruption.
Singaporean Loy Hwee Kiat, 60, was the director and shareholder of Capital Construction and a shareholder of Asiana Capital at the time of the alleged offences between February 2018 and April 2022.
He was handed 16 charges for offering bribes to four managers at Dongah Geological Engineering to further the business interests of Capital and Asiana with Dongah.
South Korean and Singapore permanent resident Shin Hyungjun, 42, worked as a project manager and tender manager at Dongah. South Koreans Kim Dong-Hwi, 46, and Woo Kyeongjin, 49, were construction managers at Dongah. South Korean Seo Myoungsoo, 52, was a project manager at the same company.
Shin, Seo, Kim and Woo had purportedly obtained $143,000 in bribes from Loy, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a press release on April 21.
Kim was also said to have concealed $38,000 in corrupt benefits by arranging for the money to be deposited into his wife’s bank account.
CPIB added that Shin had allegedly dishonestly misappropriated and converted more than $34,000 worth of scrap roller bits for his own use. The materials of the roller bits can be converted into industrial tools.
Shin did this with the help of Malaysian and Singapore permanent resident Puah Bun Shong, 50, who was the operations manager of Song Yu Construction at the time of the offences in 2022 and 2023.
Shin also purportedly conspired with Puah on five occasions to cheat Dongah between September 2022 and January 2023.
Puah had allegedly invoiced Dongah for 410 roller bits, but only 379 were delivered. This led Dongah to pay Song Yu for 31 undelivered roller bits worth more than $14,000.
Shin was handed seven charges, comprising five counts of receiving bribes, one count of abetment to cheat and one count of criminal breach of trust.
Kim was given four charges for receiving bribes totalling $38,000 and one charge of concealing the benefits of criminal conduct.
Seo was handed five charges for receiving bribes amounting to $42,000.
Woo was charged with two counts of accepting gratifications amounting to $16,000.
Puah was charged with one count of abetment to cheat and one count of criminal breach of trust.
The cases of Shin, Woo, Kim and Seo will be heard in court again on April 28. Puah’s and Loy’s cases will be mentioned in May.
