Two former Keppel FELS employees fined for accepting bribes from suppliers

SINGAPORE: Two former employees of Keppel’s offshore and marine subsidiary Keppel FELS have been fined after being convicted of accepting bribes from suppliers.

One of the defendants, Tan Seng Cheh, a 64-year-old former senior subcontracting project manager, pleaded guilty to one charge of bribery, and the remaining three charges will be considered together when sentencing by the judge. He was fined $85,000 and fined $3,672. He has paid all fines in full and returned $50,000 in bribes.

Another defendant, Wong Kok Seng, 72, a former group procurement senior general manager, also pleaded guilty and was fined $15,000. He has returned all bribes.

Court documents showed that the supplier involved, 52-year-old Thong Chee Kong, paid bribes by entertaining the two defendants and their wives on overseas trips. The supplier is Keppel FELS’ main supplier in the steel trade.

In order to maintain a good relationship, the supplier arranged and paid for three overseas trips for Tan Seng Cheh, with a total value of about $53,700. One of them was in 2008, when the defendant took his family to Japan for a visit.

The supplier also invited another defendant, Wong Kok Seng, to travel to China in 2006 and paid a total of about $5850 for the defendant and his wife.

The case was later shelved for more than a decade as the supplier absconded overseas. Until March last year, when the supplier returned to Singapore, then the two defendants were also charged together.

The supplier’s case is still pending.

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