Jail for Huawei ex-director over bribes to win business from MOH unit
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Former Huawei International account director Peng Ming was sentenced to five months and two weeks’ jail on Jan 27.
ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE – A former Huawei International account director, Peng Ming, 40, was sentenced to five months and two weeks’ jail on Jan 27 for bribing two employees of a Ministry of Health (MOH) subsidiary.
He had pleaded guilty to two graft charges the day before. Three other charges were considered during his sentencing.
One case involved a 10-day Paris trip in 2022 worth over $18,000 for Ng Kah Siang, who was at the time an engineer at Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), a wholly owned subsidiary of MOH Holdings.
The second charge involved around $1,500 in bribes in the form of entertainment given to Ding Wenjie, who was then an assistant lead engineer at IHiS, which is now known as Synapxe.
This was when Peng met Ding for drinks on five occasions between April and November 2021.
According to court documents, Peng committed the offence as he had hoped to obtain contact details of important IHiS personnel from Ding.
In all, Peng gave Ding bribes worth around $3,600 in the form of entertainment, the court heard.
On April 4, 2022, Ding forwarded Peng an internal IHiS e-mail about changes to its organisational structure.
“Peng could then reach out to important personnel in IHiS to network with them and thereafter entertain them such as through drinking sessions that Peng would pay for... to get into their good books and advance Huawei’s business interests,” the prosecutors said.
Separately, Peng worked with a former Huawei colleague, Chiang Chee Seng, to extend the Paris trip to Ng, whom Peng got to know in November 2021.
“This... trip was part of a broader course of conduct laced with a corrupt intent spanning some seven months, which involved a lucrative term deal with IHiS, which Peng estimated to be worth at least $10 million a year for at least three years,” said deputy public prosecutors Eugene Phua and Andre Ong.
This term deal allowed public healthcare institutions to use public funds to buy IT equipment and solutions from approved vendors, said the DPPs.
Chiang, an account manager at Huawei between July 2016 and October 2018, had worked with Peng to introduce the company to public healthcare institutions in Singapore.
The two men continued to work closely even after Chiang later moved to Nera Telecommunications, where he was a senior sales director.
Peng was aware that Ng, also known as Ronnie, was one of the IHiS employees who drafted the tender specifications for the deal he was eyeing.
He offered Ng a visit to Huawei’s lab in Singapore to better understand the company’s capabilities.
“Ronnie instead requested Peng to sponsor him and his wife... for an overseas trip in Europe, where Huawei had presence,” said the DPPs.
“Initially, Ronnie had asked to go to Rome, Italy, but changed his mind to Paris, France. Peng agreed to accommodate Ronnie’s request.”
Around this time, Peng also introduced Ng to Chiang, who wanted to accompany the two men on the Europe trip as he wanted to increase Nera’s chances of being a Huawei distributor to win the term deal.
To ensure that Huawei would approve the trip and to pass any subsequent audit, Peng submitted a business proposal to Huawei, falsely listing Ng and his wife as directors of IHiS.
The Paris trip in March 2022 involved nine people, including the three men and their family members, and cost nearly $63,800 in total.
The prosecution said that that Peng was “the main corrupt giver” in this graft case.
“Peng and Chiang also benefited personally as they took the opportunity to bring along their families for the (Paris) trip,” the DPPs said.
On May 10, 2022, Peng and Chiang received confidential tender documents from Ng that they could use to increase their chances of clinching the term deal.
Without revealing details, the DPPs said Peng, Ng and Chiang were arrested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) the next day.
In September 2025, Peng voluntarily paid nearly $63,800 to the CPIB as restitution for the total cost of the Paris trip, and another $3,600 as restitution for the offences linked to Ding two months later.
Ng, then 37, was sentenced to five months and two weeks’ jail in July 2025
Chiang, then 50, was sentenced to 11 weeks’ jail in 2025
Court documents did not disclose if Ding has been charged or dealt with in court.
