SINGAPORE: A former director of the National Research Foundation (NRF) went on trial on Tuesday (Mar 4) for allegedly agreeing to accept 30 per cent of a company’s shares in exchange for advancing its grant application.
Henry Wong Chuen Yuen, who was the director of programmes and central innovation cluster at NRF under the Prime Minister’s Office and a member of the Built Environment Technology Alliance consortium’s project evaluation panel, faces one charge of agreeing to accept company shares as gratification.
Co-accused Lee Tze Boon, who also claimed trial on Tuesday, is charged with corruptly offering the shares to Wong to advance his business’ interests.
Wong, 55, and Lee, 52, founded lighting company Smart Illumination together in September 2018. As founding directors, they each held 50 per cent of the company’s shares.
Wong joined NRF as a superscale officer and director in November 2018. In February 2019, he transferred his 50 per cent share in the company to Lee and resigned as a director on the same day.
In 2020, Lee discussed a new project to develop light-emitting diodes with disinfection capabilities with Wong, and the latter allegedly asked him to apply for funding from the consortium, the prosecution said.
In October that year, Lee wrote to NRF to do so.
In April 2021, Wong was appointed as a member of the consortium’s project evaluation panel, which evaluates all applications for funding, including the one submitted by Smart Illumination.
Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPP) Ben Tan and Darren Sim argued that in May 2021, Lee offered 30 per cent of the shares in Smart Illumination to Wong, who agreed to accept them for his assistance in the company’s application for funding.
Both Wong and Lee knew that the Smart Illumination shares could not be held by Wong in his own name, DPP Tan argued, detailing messages sent by Wong and Lee in a WhatsApp group chat with the company’s chairman.
Reading out the messages in court, DPP Tan quoted a message from Wong: “My name need to be cover away from public,” to which Lee responded: “Understood.”
Lee and Wong discussed ways to conceal the latter’s interest and shares in Smart Illumination, by “parking” the shares with other people, including Lee, the company’s chairman and even Wong’s eldest daughter, the prosecution argued.
On May 25, 2021, Wong signed a document in his capacity as a member of the project evaluation panel to declare that he had no affiliation or financial connection with Smart Illumination or the applicants “that might be constructed as a conflict of interest”, the prosecution said.
Neither Wong nor Lee informed the panel about the true nature of their personal and commercial relationship, the prosecution told the court.
Two days later, Wong and Lee attended a meeting held to evaluate the project, with other members of the Smart Illumination team and the project evaluation panel.
While members of the panel were concerned about the project’s high budget and the company’s financial viability, Wong spoke favourably of the project, the prosecution argued, highlighting notes from the meeting.
In early July 2021, the consortium’s programme office updated the panel on Smart Illumination’s application that the company had requested to receive approval for the funding for their project by Jul 15, 2021, or they would seek alternative options.
On Jul 21, 2021, Wong met with the then-chief technology officer of the Ministry of National Development, who will provide evidence during the trial.
Two days later, the panel gave its in-principle approval for the grant.
On Aug 23, 2021, Wong was replaced as NRF’s representative on the panel, and the grant was eventually not awarded to Smart Illumination.
The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau previously said that the case had been referred to the agency by NRF. Court documents did not state how NRF learnt about the offences.
For this ongoing trial, 19 witnesses are set to take the stand.
Wong is represented by lawyers Ms Lee May Ling and Ms Lim Wei Ying from Allen & Gledhill LLP, and Lee is represented by Mr Naidu Navindraram, Ms Lynn Cheng and Ms Chloe Chen Wei.
The punishment for corruption is a fine of up to S$100,000 (US$74,302), five years’ prison, or both.
