Ex-FAS deputy director pleads guilty to 15 cheating charges

SINGAPORE: On Wednesday (Jan 3), a former deputy director at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), Rikram Jit Singh pleaded guilty to 15 cheating charges.

He took advantage of his role at FAS to secure supply contracts to companies connected to him and his wife, Asya Kirin Kames. When FAS disbursed S$609,380 due to the contracts, Rikram and Asya dishonestly gained S$127,896. This amount, however, has been taken from the couple by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. The money will be given back to FAS.

Rikram will be sentenced on Jan 16, when another 30 similar charges will be taken into consideration.

Two other individuals are involved in Rikram and Asya’s scheme, namely Shankar Suppiah and Pallaniappan Ravindran. While Shankar received a four-month jail sentence in November 2022 after being convicted of five counts of cheating, Asya and Pallaniappan are still awaiting their day in court.

Rikram, now 43, was first employed by FAS as a marketing manager in December 2010. By mid-2017, he had been promoted to deputy director and managed the organization’s marketing department, carried out strategic planning, and procured goods and services for FAS events.

But early in 2019, FAS fired him upon investigation of code of conduct breaches.

Asya, now 37, first met Rikram in 2013 while working at FAS. After she left the organization at the end of the year, she started her own company, ARN, which sold sporting and recreational goods and handled events.

With FAS working with ARN on events, the two communicated often and started a relationship, going on to marry some years later.

Meanwhile, Rikram involved Pallaniappan, one of his friends, by persuading him to allow Rikram to use his Pallaniappan’s company, Myriad Sports & Events, as a front for receiving jobs from FAS, which ARN would handle.

Specifically, FAS had produced merchandise with agreement from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the National Council of Problem Gambling (NCPG) distributed during matches.

Pallaniappan agreed to let his company be a front for the awarded contracts but was unaware of who would supply the merchandise, Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran told the court.

By October 2017, the ownership of ARN was transferred to Shankar, another friend of Rikram. Since Asya and Rikram were getting married, she wanted to hide the truth from FAS, even if she continued to control the company and received three-fifths of ARN’s profits.

However, by January 2019, the CPIB learned that Rikram misappropriated money from FAS./TISG

Read also: FAS lifts lifetime bans on 4 former players involved in match-fixing