Jail for man linked to scammer who cheated Iras into disbursing over $11.8m in grants

SINGAPORE - A man was sentenced on Friday (March 11) to 10 months' jail over his role in a ruse linked to scammer Lim Chit Foo, who had duped the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) into disbursing more than $11.8 million in productivity grants.

The court heard that Maurice Tan Wei Qiang, now 39, had acted on Lim's instructions and played an active part in facilitating the retention of criminal benefits.

Tan was also a director of shell companies that were used to unlawfully submit Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) claims to Iras. They included Creliable and Kezro.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Eric Hu said that as a result of Tan's "knowing disregard of of his directorial duties", fraudulent PIC claims were made to cheat Iras of more than $250,000.

He was ordered on Friday to serve a jail term after he pleaded guilty to three charges under the Companies Act.

As part of his sentence, he is also disqualified from acting as a director or taking part in the management of a company for five years.

Both Tan and Lim are Singaporeans.

On Monday, Lim, now 38, was sentenced to nine years and four months' jail. He had pleaded guilty in January to 20 cheating charges.

The court heard that the PIC scheme, administered by Iras, was a government subsidy open to all Singapore-registered companies that have active business operations here and employ at least three local employees.

Under the initiative, which expired in 2018, companies could convert qualifying expenditure which they had incurred, such as purchases of IT and automation equipment, into cash payouts.

The DPP said that Tan first met Lim through a mutual friend some time around 2008 to 2010. Tan then started working for him.

Some time before April 2015, Lim hatched a plan to make false claims under the PIC scheme.

He also proposed to Tan that the latter's name be used for purposes that include incorporating new companies.

The prosecutor added: "Lim also told the accused that as part of the packaging of the companies, Lim would be doing PIC claim submissions for the companies. Lim told the accused that he intended to claim for a higher qualifying expenditure than what was actually incurred.

"As the accused would be the registered director of these companies, Lim promised the accused between $3,000 and $6,000 as commission for approved PIC claims made in the companies' names."

As Tan was already working for Lim at the time, he agreed to be registered as the director of various companies. Tan also knew that the firms had no business or operations at all.

The companies were later used to cheat Iras.

DPP Hu told the court: "(Tan) was not involved in the submission of PIC claims in the names of the companies and was not aware of the details of the claims."

Tan was, however, aware that the claims were not genuine, the court heard.