SINGAPORE - A former senior manager of a development company was fined $60,000 on Friday for corruptly receiving a total of $100,000 from a man in return for providing him VIP invitation cards and listing in a condominium sales launch.
Suhaimi Amin, 52, admitted to one of two charges of receiving a $50,000 bribe from property agent Goh Chan Chong at Casuarina Road on a day between July 16 and Aug 31, 2007.
Suhaimi, who was then working for United Engineers Developments (UED), left in 2008. He now runs his own construction business.
As senior manager, he helped in the marketing of The Rochester, a condominium in North Buona Vista Road that was being developed by UED.
Before its official launch in July 2007, the company held an exclusive preview for those classified as "Special Very Important Persons (SVIPs). At the next level, UED's marketing department would mail VIP invitation cards for the soft launch to VVIPs such as consultants and contractors.
A district court heard that Mr Goh, 39, originally from Macau, called Suhaimi in June 2007. Mr Goh said he was an experienced property investor and asked for VIP invitation cards to the soft launch.
Due to his persistence, Suhaimi subsequently passed Mr Goh a stack of VIP invitation cards for him and his associates.
Investigation showed that on July 16, 2007, Mr Goh - together with his mother, wife, mother-in-law, two brothers and their ex-girlfriends, his mistress and her friend, as well as a staff of UED - obtained an option to purchase a total of 11 units that cost $1.1 million to $2.2 million each. Only two options were not exercised.
Although there is a UED policy prohibiting VVIPs from buying more than one unit, Mr Goh had circumvented this by getting various buyers to execute a power of attorney in his favour, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani.
A few weeks after the launch, Mr Goh met Suhaimi at a roti prata shop at Casuarina Road, off Upper Thomson Road, and handed him an envelope that contained $50,000.
When asked what it was for, Mr Goh told Suhaimi that it was his way of showing "appreciation'" to him.
Mr Goh handed another envelope of $50,000 to Suhaimi at the same shop on another day. The full amount was returned to Mr Goh by Suhaimi in May 2008.
Suhaimi could have been fined up to $100,000 and/or jailed for up to five years for corruption.
