Three men accused of graft; two were then working for Huawei and MOH-linked agency

SINGAPORE – Three Singaporean men, including two who were then working for Huawei International and an agency under the Ministry of Health (MOH), are accused of graft, with one case linked to a Paris trip worth more than $18,000.

On Jan 22, Peng Ming, 39, who was account director for telecommunications firm Huawei at the time of the alleged offences, was charged with four counts of graft and one count of cheating.

Ng Kah Siang, 37, was then an engineer at Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS) – a health tech agency under MOH. It is now known as Synapxe

On Jan 22, Ng was handed five charges, including four counts of attempting to obtain bribes.

He was also charged with obtaining a bribe – the Paris trip that allegedly took place from March 11 to 20, 2022.

The third man, Chiang Chee Seng, 50, who was then the senior sales director of Nera Telecommunications, was handed a graft charge linked to the trip.

According to court documents, Peng is accused of committing multiple counts of graft between 2020 and 2022.

In or around March 2022, he allegedly worked with Chiang to bribe Ng with the Paris trip for him and his wife, Ms Le Kim Phung.

This was purportedly done to advance the business interests of Huawei and Nera with IHiS.

Peng is said to have also committed cheating on or around Feb 22, 2022.

He allegedly duped Huawei into believing that Ng and Ms Le were directors of IHiS in a business proposal to induce the telco into approving an overseas trip.

Separately, Peng allegedly gave bribes in the form of entertainment to Ding Wenjie, who was then an engineer at IHiS, over 12 occasions between 2020 and 2022.

The court heard that each occasion involved around $300.

Peng is said to have committed these offences to advance Huawei’s business interests with IHiS.

As for Ng, he allegedly tried to obtain a bribe, in or around November 2021, from Lee Chee Wee, who was then an assistant general manager of Eminet.

Ng was said to have asked for 1 per cent of the firm’s sales revenue linked to a certain tender. Court documents did not disclose how IHiS and Eminet were linked to each other.

At around the same time, Ng also allegedly tried to obtain a bribe of $20,000 from Peng.

In addition, Ng is accused of attempting to obtain a bribe of at least $20,000 from Low Aik Khiam, who was then a sales manager at Aruba Networks, in or around November 2021.

In another case in or around March 2022, Ng allegedly tried to obtain from Chiang 1 per cent of Nera’s sales revenue linked to a certain tender.

The alleged bribes on these occasions were said to be for advancing business interests with IHiS.

The cases of Peng, Ng and Chiang have been adjourned to March.