Five chefs charged with accepting bribes from seafood supplier

Five chefs were charged on Tuesday with corruptly accepting bribes from a seafood supplier in return for engaging his firm to supply seafood products to their establishments. They face between six and 31 charges each.

Leung Wing Hoi, 52, was a banquet chef with Shangri-La Hotel when he allegedly accepted a total of $82,288 on 20 occasions from Tay Ee Tiong, then owner of Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise, between 2006 and 2009.

He is also accused of 11 charges of conspiring with Tay to give a total of $32,137 to Shangri-La's executive chef Tsang Kang Hung to advance the business interests of Wealthy by ensuring that the hotel continued to buy seafood products from Wealthy.

Another chef, Tong Yu Chou, 53, then with PFS, is alleged to have accepted a total of $74,355 from Tay between 2006 and 2009 in exchange for ensuring that PFS bought items from Wealthy.

Former Grand Hyatt Singapore employee Ong Tian Lock, 45, allegedly accepted a total of $36,900 from Tay between September 2008 and August 2009.

Leung Wing Cheung, 51, was with Holiday Inn Atrium when he is said to have accepted a total of $28,796 from Tay, while Choo Soon Ling 56, then head chef of Por Kee Eating House, is accused of accepting a total of $28,312.

Choo, who intends to plead guilty, will be back in court on March 19. The others will appear again on April 2.

Tay, 57, has since served 18 months' jail for corruption. Five chefs who accepted bribes from him have also been convicted. Two of them were each jailed four months while the others were fined between $5,000 and $17,000.

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