A deliveryman who was the director of one of nine firms involved in a $39.9 million SkillsFuture scam was sentenced to four years and four months' jail yesterday for his role in the scheme.

Tan Wee Kee, 57, allowed an acquaintance to use his NRIC and SingPass details to set up the company in return for money for a $20,000 debt owed to unlicensed moneylenders.

He also allowed the acquaintance, Sim Soon Lee, to use his bank account to receive about $20.5 million in total from fraudulent SkillsFuture course fee subsidy claims.

Tan had earlier pleaded guilty to four charges related to his involvement in the scheme, including for money laundering and for breaching a director's duty under the Companies Act.

Six other charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Tan was part of a criminal syndicate that had set up nine shell companies - three training providers and six business entities - to submit more than 8,000 course fee subsidy claims totalling about $39.9 million to SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) between May and October 2017.

The fraudulent applications and claims were made via SSG's online portal, SkillsConnect, using the SingPass credentials of various people, including Tan.

Some time in 2017, Sim offered to help Tan repay his debt on the condition that Tan provide his NRIC details to him. After Tan did so, he received $300.

Several days later, Sim asked Tan to sign some documents so that the latter could be registered as a director of a company named SK Business, which Tan agreed to without finding out why and what the company was for, said the prosecution.

Tan also provided Sim with his SingPass credentials and ATM card without finding out the reasons for the request, and was given $5,000 in cash.

From June 29 that year, Tan also became the authorised representative of SK Business on the SkillsConnect portal, and his SingPass credentials were used to endorse training grant applications and to submit claims.

Tan also became the bank signatory of SK Business, and signed blank cheques belonging to the company. Upon receiving the cheques, Sim gave Tan $5,000 cash.

On Aug 8 that year, Sim told Tan to withdraw $90,000 and $89,000 from his bank account and to pass the sums to him. Tan did so, and received $2,000 from Sim. On Aug 12, Tan was told to encash a cheque for $90,000, which he did. He passed the full sum to Sim.

Later that month, on Aug 24, Tan was removed as director of SK Business after he told Sim that he wanted to resign from the company. However, he did not change or cancel his SingPass or ATM card, and remained as signatory of the firm's bank account until Sept 20.

On Oct 30, Tan left Singapore to allegedly work in China, and was told by Sim the following month not to return to Singapore as he would be arrested.

Tan decided to remain overseas in various countries, but was arrested by Malaysian police on Aug 8 last year and handed over to the Commercial Affairs Department.