AFP News – 4 hours ago
A Singaporean civil servant appeared in court Thursday
on 455 charges of cheating the government totalling more than
Sg$600,000 ($460,000), authorities and a media report said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement
that clerical officer Liew Chee Meng was alleged to have forged
documents to approve the purchase of gift vouchers for his personal
benefit between 2007 and early this year.
Subsequent investigations led to the seizure of almost
Sg$475,000 worth of goods from the accused, the MHA said.
"A civilian clerical officer from the Ministry of Home
Affairs... was charged in court today for forgery, cheating,
criminal breach of trust and conversion of proceeds of crime," it
said.
"The offences relate to acts allegedly committed in the
course of his employment with the ministry. The total amount
involved is Sg$617,087."
Liew, 35, is alleged to have committed 455 offences,
according to the Straits Times website.
The MHA said Liew's actions were uncovered in January
after an internal audit following a corruption case involving a
senior civil servant with a penchant for Italian supercars.
In that case Koh Seah Wee, formerly a deputy director
of information technology at the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) was
sentenced last month to 22 years in jail for cheating the
government of more than Sg$12 million.
A former colleague of his was sentenced to 15
years.
Large-scale graft cases are rare in Singapore, a
thriving financial centre and business hub which enjoys a
reputation for being the least corrupt country in Asia.
It pays its civil servants some of the highest
government salaries in the world as a deterrent to corruption.
