How come nobody saw this?
Monday June 11, 2:29 PM
Former head of Singapore's biggest charity found guilty of
cheating
The former head of Singapore's biggest charity was found guilty
Monday of falsifying documents and faces up to five years in
jail.
T.T. Durai, the former chief executive of the National Kidney
Foundation, also faces a maximum fine of 100,000 Singapore dollars
(65,359 US).
District judge Aedit Abdullah said evidence submitted during the
trial showed Durai was guilty of deliberately cheating the
foundation with a false invoice of 20,000 dollars.
The judge said Durai intended to cheat the foundation with the
false invoice to pay a firm for consultancy services when in actual
fact it was to reward an associate for his fund-raising
efforts.
"Having come to the conclusion therefore that the charge was made
out, I accordingly find the accused guilty and convict him," the
judge said.
The court is expected to pass sentence on June 21 after Durai's
lawyer makes a final mitigation plea.
Durai stepped down from the foundation in 2005 following
revelations he drew an annual salary of 600,000 dollars plus
first-class air travel and upkeep for his luxury car.
The scandal emerged after Durai filed a defamation suit against The
Straits Times newspaper when it reported that a gold-plated tap had
been installed in the private bathroom of his office.
The disclosures triggered public outrage because an estimated
two-thirds of Singaporeans -- many of them working class -- had
donated money to the foundation, which provides subsidised dialysis
services to kidney patients.
Critics said Singapore's reputation for good corporate governance
was dented following the revelations, prompting the government to
subject charities to stricter regulation.
Singapore is consistently ranked by independent business surveys as
among the least corrupt countries in Asia.-Yahoo News
[/quote]
