Jail for man who received more than $506k in bribes

SINGAPORE – A store planning manager at a retail management firm received bribes totalling more than $506,000 between 2020 and 2022.

At the time of the offences, Muhammadd Fauzi Abdul Rahman was working for Pan Pacific Retail Management, a holding company of Pan Pacific International Holdings, which was in the business of developing Don Don Donki stores in Singapore.

The prosecution said that he had accepted the money from four people – Xu Zhiping, 39; Tan Han Leong, 45; Jane Hong Hoe Chun, 53 and Lee Lian Hiang, 55 – to advance the business interest of their firms with Pan Pacific Retail Management.

Fauzi, 41, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of graft and was sentenced to 64 weeks’ jail on March 14.

After repaying around $30,000 to Xu, he was also ordered to pay a penalty of more than $476,000.

Fauzi will have to spend an additional 10 months behind bars if he is unable to fork out this amount.

At the time of Fauzi’s offences, Xu was a shareholder at two firms – Channelbytes and ChannelInk – collectively known as CICB.

Hong was then a director at CICB and another firm called Channelwerkz, while Lee was a director at air-conditioning service provider BuildCool Engineering Services at the time.

Xu is a Chinese national, while all the others are Singaporeans.

Deputy public prosecutors Tay Jia En and June Ngian stated in court documents that Fauzi who joined Pan Pacific Retail Management in 2018 had been tasked to design 12 Don Don Donki stores in Singapore and coordinate with the retail chain’s contractors.

He also had the authority to recommend contractors to Don Don Donki’s consultant, referred to in court documents only as SSD.

In 2018, Channelbytes became Don Don Donki’s media service contractor.

Two years later, Fauzi and Xu came to an agreement that Fauzi would help CICB in securing jobs with Don Don Donki, the prosecutors told the court.

Among other things, the prosecutors said: “This would be done by Fauzi inviting CICB to submit a quote for any relevant projects and during the tender period, informing Xu and/or Hong of the other competitors’ quotes.”

Fauzi would also advise them in adjusting CICB’s quotes, the court heard.

According to court documents, Fauzi later received bribes totalling more than $471,000 from Xu and/or Hong.

Separately, Fauzi and Lee got to know each other after BuildCool was invited to provide quotations for works at various Don Don Donki outlets.

Among other things, in 2019, Fauzi invited BuildCool to bid for air-con and electrical works for a Don Don Donki outlet at The Central shopping mall near Clarke Quay.

The prosecutors said: “In the two rounds of tender submissions, Fauzi... provided information on the other competitors’ quotations... so that BuildCool could lower its quote. BuildCool eventually won the tender bid for the... outlet.”

Court documents stated that Fauzi accepted bribes totalling nearly $24,000 from Lee.

The cases involving Xu, Hong and Lee are still pending.

In another case, alarm systems provider Secured Retail Solutions (SRS) became a security panel contractor for Don Don Donki some time before 2018.

In 2020, Fauzi contacted Tan to ask for monetary loans.

Tan then loaned him more than $9,000 in total over eight occasions between August 2021 and January 2022.

He understood that Fauzi could exclude SRS as a vendor for Don Don Donki projects. Tan did not want to offend Fauzi and agreed to give him the loans without asking for repayments.

Tan, who was the owner and director of SRS at the time of the offences, was fined $33,000 on March 11 after he pleaded guilty to two graft charges.

Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light, but all five people were charged in court in January 2024.