SINGAPORE: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a man conspired with two others to sell work passes to 18 foreigners who wanted to stay in Singapore but did not intend to work.
Sim Kian Boon Terence, 36, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (May 13) to six counts under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, with another 12 similar charges considered for sentencing.
He was sentenced to two years in prison, two strokes of the cane and a S$32,000 (US$25,000) penalty. He will serve two months’ jail in lieu of the penalty, as his lawyer said he was not in a position to pay.
The ruse involved setting up shell companies and using the companies’ foreign worker quotas for foreigners who wanted to stay in Singapore without actually working.
The shell companies submitted work pass applications, but in reality, they did not need any foreign workers as they were not operational.
Sim perpetrated the scheme together with Leong Kwai Tong and Tan Tai Ji in 2021.
Tan’s role was to find interested foreigners, while Leong’s was to handle administrative matters, like submitting the work pass applications and creating documents to further the ruse.
Leong recruited Sim to be a director in name for the shell companies in the third quarter of 2019. For his role, Sim was paid a total of S$18,000, or S$1,800 a month for 10 months.
Sim provided his Singpass login details and set up his Singpass one-time password to be sent to Leong’s phone, so Leong could use it for the shell companies and work pass applications.
In this way, he abetted by conspiring to obtain the work passes for 18 foreigners under four shell companies: Cosa Engineering, JT Metal Engineer, Productivity System Engineering and Productivity System Production.
Once the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) approved the work pass applications, the foreigners were allowed to enter and live in Singapore.
They were left to their own devices for the duration of the work passes, and Sim had no knowledge of their whereabouts as they were not actually employed by him.
Sim also let Leong sign on his behalf the fake documents related to the work pass applications, including employment contracts and salary slips.
The scheme also involved WeChat groups created to connect Sim with the foreigners, and meetings they attended that were held by Leong and Tan, to familiarise them with the office environment and type of business the shell companies supposedly conducted.
The main purpose of these was to brief Sim and the foreigners on how to respond if MOM started investigations.
Fake documents, such as brochures about what the companies supposedly sold, were also given to them to perpetuate the deception.
MOM started investigations in November 2021 after receiving information about possible breaches of the law.
MOM prosecutor Jasmine Koh highlighted that these were syndicated offences, and said the harm to society was high as they happened during a time of heightened border security measures.
Defence lawyer Riko Isaac said Sim got involved in the ruse out of financial desperation during the pandemic, and gave in to the allure of “fast or easy money”.
He said his client was remorseful and had cooperated with MOM throughout the investigations.
It is an offence to obtain a work pass for a foreign employee for a business that does not exist, is not in operation, does not require the employment of the foreign employee, or fails to employ them.
The punishment for this offence is a jail term between six months and two years, and a fine of up to S$6,000.
As Sim was convicted of at least six such offences, he was also liable for caning.
