Man conspired with 3 others to dupe firm, which lost $877k in deals worth over $7.5m

SINGAPORE – A senior executive from a medical equipment manufacturer conspired with three men to dupe the firm into paying more than $7.5 million in deals that led to $877,000 in losses.

Chua Poh Meng, 53, was working for Biosensors Interventional Technologies when he committed the offences between January 2014 and April 2016.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to two cheating charges involving more than $6 million.

Six other charges, including a third cheating charge linked to the remaining amount, will be considered during sentencing.

Deputy public prosecutors Victoria Ting and Bryan Wong stated in court documents that Chua had joined Biosensors in 2012 as a global IT manager before he received a promotion and became an associate director three years later.

The case involving his then colleague Seow Hock Siew, who he reported to, is still pending. Seow was then the director of the firm’s IT department.

Two men from other firms – Tan Tiong Meng and Chew Seng – were dealt with in court earlier.

At the time of the offences, Tan was a director at electronic payment company Ubiqpay, while Chew was a director at JCS Consultancy, which deals with IT-related matters.

The trio’s ages were not disclosed in court documents. Both Ubiqpay and JCS were Biosensors’ vendors at the time.

The prosecutors said: “The operative deception was the dishonest concealment from Biosensors of the fact that Seow and/or (Chua) would gain profits from its payments to Ubiqpay and JCS.

“The profit was derived through Tan and Chew marking up the amounts in the quotations they submitted to Biosensors in Ubiqpay’s and JCS’ names.”

The quotations were approved by Biosensors, which issued payments to Ubiqpay and JCS based on the marked-up invoices, added the prosecutors.

According to the court documents, there were 31 such invoices that resulted in Biosensors paying a total of $5,650,100 to Ubiqpay and 15 invoices that caused Biosensors to deliver $1,876,900 to JCS.

Due to the schemes, Biosensors was duped into paying a total of $7,527,000 to Ubiqpay and JCS, suffering a loss of $877,000, the amount of the mark-ups.

The prosecutors said that Chua received around $40,000 in total from Seow. Chua has since repaid this amount to Biosensors.

On Tuesday, the prosecution urged the court to sentence him to at least three years and four months’ jail, adding: “The main aggravating factor in the present case is the large amount of money involved.”

They also said that for financial and property offences, the sentence is heavier the greater the economic value involved.

Chua is expected to be sentenced on Jan 26.

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.