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Jail for ex-director at engineering firm who gave $285k in bribes to then LTA executive
Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent
UPDATED Jul 29, 2024, 08:16 PM
SINGAPORE - An executive director and shareholder at an engineering firm gave bribes totalling $285,000 in the form of loans to a Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director.
At the time of the offences, Chinese national Cai Jungang, 60, was working for the Tritech Group. He was also a director at its subsidiaries - Engineering and Tritech Engineering & Testing (Singapore).
Cai gave the bribes to Singaporean Henry Foo Yung Thye, who resigned from LTA in September 2019, to advance Tritech Group&rsquo s business interests with the agency.
On July 29, Cai was sentenced to a year and 10 months' jail after District Judge Jasvender Kaur convicted him of seven graft charges in May following a trial.
A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority revealed that Cai is no longer a director at the three companies.
Deputy public prosecutors Jiang Ke-Yue and Louis Ngia stated in their submissions that LTA was a key client of Tritech Engineering.
The DPPs also told the court that there is no evidence the offences had a direct impact on the award of LTA contracts to Cai' s companies and their performance.
They added: " This does not mean that no harm was caused, or that the accused did not benefit."
" Rather, as a result of the loans, (Foo) became beholden to the accused, and had repeatedly acted improperly, providing the accused with information ahead of time or via circumvention of the proper channels."
Some of them were linked to contract T2805, involving instrumentation and monitoring work for the construction of Stevens and Napier stations, as well as tunnels for the Thomson-East Coast Line.
For instance, the DPPs said, when LTA decided to award T2805 to the Tritech Group, Foo told Cai the news before the official announcement as Cai had given him the loans.
According to court documents, Foo was aware of a conflict of interest when he made his first loan request to Cai, asking that it be kept confidential between them if Cai was not willing to give him the loan.
Cai eventually gave Foo two loans totalling $88,000 in January 2014. A few days later, Foo demonstrated his gratitude by sending Cai a work-related message stating: " Happy New Year, Dr Cai. Will work with you in T2805."
Cai gave Foo more loans later that year, with all of them adding up to $185,000 in total.
He was fearful that Foo could affect his company' s chances of getting tenders or work in projects if he turned down the loan requests.
At the time of the last loan of $100,000 in 2016, contract T2805 and two others were still ongoing.
The DPPs said: " There was therefore a clear incentive for the accused to accede to (Foo' s) requests for loans, since his companies were either tendering for or performing works for projects where (Foo) was the project director."
They also said Foo had asked for all the loans " incessantly" , adding: &ldquo Not only was (Foo) asking for large amounts of money from the accused regularly, he had revealed to the accused he was desperate.
" He had approached a colleague and former contractor friend for money, and even asked the accused to use his credit facilities to fund the loans."
Cai was represented by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, and lawyers Paul Loy and Calvin Ong.
According to the prosecution, Foo and Cai had tried to conceal the corruption by claiming the loans were between two friends.
But the DPPs stressed that during an investigation into the case, Cai revealed in his statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in September 2019 that he did not regard Foo as a friend but merely a representative of his client, LTA.
The prosecution told Judge Kaur: " The accused' s efforts to package the loans as innocent help were deceitful, and they underscore his corrupt intent in making the loans."
In September 2021, Foo, then 47, was sentenced to five years and six months' jail after taking some $1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans from multiple contractors and sub-contractors.
Foo, who had pleaded guilty to seven counts of corruption, was also ordered to pay a penalty of more than $1.1 million, equivalent to the amount he had not returned.
On July 29, Cai' s bail was set at $150,000, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Aug 12, 2024.
UPDATED Jul 29, 2024, 08:16 PM
SINGAPORE - An executive director and shareholder at an engineering firm gave bribes totalling $285,000 in the form of loans to a Land Transport Authority (LTA) deputy group director.
At the time of the offences, Chinese national Cai Jungang, 60, was working for the Tritech Group. He was also a director at its subsidiaries - Engineering and Tritech Engineering & Testing (Singapore).
Cai gave the bribes to Singaporean Henry Foo Yung Thye, who resigned from LTA in September 2019, to advance Tritech Group&rsquo s business interests with the agency.
On July 29, Cai was sentenced to a year and 10 months' jail after District Judge Jasvender Kaur convicted him of seven graft charges in May following a trial.
A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority revealed that Cai is no longer a director at the three companies.
Deputy public prosecutors Jiang Ke-Yue and Louis Ngia stated in their submissions that LTA was a key client of Tritech Engineering.
The DPPs also told the court that there is no evidence the offences had a direct impact on the award of LTA contracts to Cai' s companies and their performance.
They added: " This does not mean that no harm was caused, or that the accused did not benefit."
" Rather, as a result of the loans, (Foo) became beholden to the accused, and had repeatedly acted improperly, providing the accused with information ahead of time or via circumvention of the proper channels."
Some of them were linked to contract T2805, involving instrumentation and monitoring work for the construction of Stevens and Napier stations, as well as tunnels for the Thomson-East Coast Line.
For instance, the DPPs said, when LTA decided to award T2805 to the Tritech Group, Foo told Cai the news before the official announcement as Cai had given him the loans.
According to court documents, Foo was aware of a conflict of interest when he made his first loan request to Cai, asking that it be kept confidential between them if Cai was not willing to give him the loan.
Cai eventually gave Foo two loans totalling $88,000 in January 2014. A few days later, Foo demonstrated his gratitude by sending Cai a work-related message stating: " Happy New Year, Dr Cai. Will work with you in T2805."
Cai gave Foo more loans later that year, with all of them adding up to $185,000 in total.
He was fearful that Foo could affect his company' s chances of getting tenders or work in projects if he turned down the loan requests.
At the time of the last loan of $100,000 in 2016, contract T2805 and two others were still ongoing.
The DPPs said: " There was therefore a clear incentive for the accused to accede to (Foo' s) requests for loans, since his companies were either tendering for or performing works for projects where (Foo) was the project director."
They also said Foo had asked for all the loans " incessantly" , adding: &ldquo Not only was (Foo) asking for large amounts of money from the accused regularly, he had revealed to the accused he was desperate.
" He had approached a colleague and former contractor friend for money, and even asked the accused to use his credit facilities to fund the loans."
Cai was represented by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, and lawyers Paul Loy and Calvin Ong.
According to the prosecution, Foo and Cai had tried to conceal the corruption by claiming the loans were between two friends.
But the DPPs stressed that during an investigation into the case, Cai revealed in his statement to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in September 2019 that he did not regard Foo as a friend but merely a representative of his client, LTA.
The prosecution told Judge Kaur: " The accused' s efforts to package the loans as innocent help were deceitful, and they underscore his corrupt intent in making the loans."
In September 2021, Foo, then 47, was sentenced to five years and six months' jail after taking some $1.24 million in bribes in the form of loans from multiple contractors and sub-contractors.
Foo, who had pleaded guilty to seven counts of corruption, was also ordered to pay a penalty of more than $1.1 million, equivalent to the amount he had not returned.
On July 29, Cai' s bail was set at $150,000, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Aug 12, 2024.