SINGAPORE: The right-hand man of a mastermind who engineered the largest fraud involving Government funds to date was sentenced to jail for 13 years and nine months on Wednesday (May 31).
Lim Wee Hong David, 44, was part of the syndicate that submitted more than 8,300 fraudulent claims to SkillsFuture Singapore for training course subsidies when no training was conducted.
SkillsFuture was duped into disbursing almost S$40 million (US$29.6m), of which S$21.3 million was laundered away and remains unaccounted for.
Lim pleaded guilty to 15 charges, which include conspiring to convert or transfer criminal proceeds, conspiring to conceal criminal proceeds and forgery of a valuable security. Another 33 charges were considered in sentencing.
The syndicate exploited the SkillsFuture Singapore Course Fee Grant scheme, where business entities in Singapore can apply to SkillsFuture for a subsidy if they send their employees to attend skills training courses with registered training providers.
The masterminds behind the fraud, husband-and-wife pair Ng Cheng Kwee and Lee Lai Leng, registered nine entities as applicant entities or training providers from January 2017.
Lim was roped in as he was Ng's friend since 2011. He also introduced another co-accused to the couple, who later helped in the criminal scheme.
The group agreed on a scheme to submit false course fee grant claims to cheat SkillsFuture into disbursing training grants.
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