Mastermind of ruse involving Iras' productivity scheme gets three years' jail and $295,272 penalty

SINGAPORE - Magician S. Chandran was on Wednesday (March 31) sentenced to three years' jail and ordered to pay a penalty of $295,272 for causing a government agency to disburse $73,818 in public funds to individuals who made bogus claims.

He will spend an additional 30 weeks behind bars if unable to pay the amount.

The Singaporean was found guilty last July of three counts of helping three individuals make fraudulent claims under the Productivity and Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme, an Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) initiative meant to boost productivity.

The 40-year-old, who the prosecutors described as the mastermind of the ruse, still has 55 other charges against him. These will be dealt with at a later date.

The PIC scheme had offered tax deductions or cash payouts to companies that made genuine investments to enhance productivity and innovation, such as by investing in staff training, information technology or automation equipment.

As part of the conditions, businesses had to employ at least three local employees before they were eligible for the PIC cash payouts.

Chandran, who was the sole proprietor of a firm called Paradize Consultancy, had helped others obtain the monies even though they were not eligible for the scheme.

The trio - Mahendran Rajoo, Shanti Peerisamy and Crystal Priya Ragavan - received their monies in 2014. They were all dealt with earlier.

For his role in the ruse, the court ordered Mahendran to pay a $49,212 penalty in 2017. He was also given the maximum $5,000 fine.

The Straits Times understands that the two women were given conditional warnings.

In earlier proceedings, it was revealed that Chandran had helped Mahendran register a sole proprietorship called M Midhuna.

Chandran was aware that the company had no employees. Despite this, he "instigated and convinced" Mahendran to make a bogus PIC claim, said prosecutors.

Chandran committed similar offences with the two women.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani, as well as Iras prosecutors Norman Teo and Christopher Lim, said the trio had handed half of their ill-gotten gains to Chandran.

On Wednesday, Mr Teo urged the court to sentence Chandran to three years' jail with a penalty of $295,272.

Mr Teo also pressed for him to be given an additional 30 weeks' jail if he is unable to pay the amount.

Stressing that Chandran's offences were difficult to detect, the prosecutor added: "The offender was the mastermind behind this whole fraudulent PIC scheme. He was the one that devised the falsity to portray to Iras that the PIC claims made were legitimate when in fact they were not."

Chandran, who was unrepresented, told District Judge Kessler Soh that he is the sole breadwinner of his family and that a jail term would cause his loved ones to lose financial support.

He also said that he has "major depression" and is undergoing treatment for the condition.

Chandran intends to appeal against his conviction and sentence. He was offered bail of $200,000 on Wednesday.