Man jailed two months for receiving bribes

SINGAPORE : A man was jailed for two months by a district court on Monday for receiving bribes in exchange for getting his company to award a contract.

64—year—old Alex Chee Eng Huat was also ordered to pay a penalty of S$67,000 — the amount he pocketed in bribes from Applied Forwarding, a company that provides logistics, warehousing and shipping services.

The court heard that Chee, who was then the head of logistics at Diethelm Singapore, had committed the offences between April 2008 and September 2009.

He accepted sums of between S$4,000 and S$10,000 from the director of Applied Forwarding, 49—year—old Viswamoorthy Ramanathan.

In exchange, Chee gave recommendations to his boss that landed Applied Forwarding a two—year contract with Diethelm to provide warehousing and distribution services.

Cash changed hands in envelopes between Chee and Mr Viswamoorthy at Diethelm’s office in Pasir Panjang or at Applied Forwarding’s Senoko warehouse.

Court documents also stated that Chee accepted some of the payouts with the belief that he would continue to assist Applied Forwarding in securing future contracts with Diethelm.

Though Chee’s lawyer argued for a stiff fine as he is a first—time offender, the prosecution said a jail term would be more appropriate, given the large sum of money involved, and the fact that the offences had taken place over a long period of time.

— CNA/ms