Former SLA officers jailed for $12m fraud case

SINGAPORE - Two former Singapore Land Authority (SLA) officers involved in a $12 million fraud case were sentenced to jail today.
Former deputy director of technology and infrastructure, Koh Seah Wee, 41, was sentenced to 22 years in jail, and his subordinate, former manager Lim Chai Meng, 38, was sentenced to 15 years, The Straits Times reported.

Koh and Lim both pleaded guilty last week to 55 and 48 charges respectively.
Working in collusion with seven external parties, the men had - in the time between Jan 2008 and March 2010 - cheated SLA by rendering false invoices through various business entities for IT services and goods which were not delivered.

In all, SLA paid $12.2 million in 282 contracts to 11 bogus vendors. To date, $9 million out of the total amount has been recovered.

Koh and Lim divested cash to various accounts to their relatives and invested in private properties, unit trusts, stocks and shares.

With the fraud money, Koh also bought his wife and mother-in-law two luxury cars worth up to about $1.9 million.

Koh was also involved in other fraud offences between the late 1990s and 2002, cheating the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) and Supreme Court.
Koh had another 317 charges of cheating and money laundering taken into consideration, while Lim had 260 other charges.