Mok Kim Whang, former senior vice president of ST Marine and Han Yew Kwang, former cfo and deputy president, have admitted to the corporate crime of giving bribes and setting up bogus entertainment expense claims to cover up bribes, Straits Times reported.
Mok, Han and a third person Tan Mong Seng, former president of commercial business, had allegedly conspired to make more than SGD6.5m ($4.8m) in false entertainment expense entries in ST Marine’s petty cash voucher system.
Tan is in the midst of a trial and has not pleaded guilty.
The corruption scandal took place between 2000 and 2009, and the men were charged in December 2014 and July 2015.
Mok faced 826 charges of conspiring to make false entertainment expense claims of SGD3.13m and making SGD5,000 in fraudulent claims on his own. He pleaded guilty to 40 charges last Wednesday, it was reported. Mok also pleaded guilty to one count of corruption by conspiring to give bribes to employees of ST Marine’s customers to secure more ship repair contracts.
Han faced 475 charges involving corruption and SGD1.86m in false entertainment claims, and he pleaded guilty on 10 May to one corruption charge and 49 charges of conspiring to use false entries to mask bribes.
Both Mok and Han will be sentenced at a later date.
Apart from the trio of Mok, Han and Tan, four other former ST Marine senior executives were also charged over graft and falsification of accounts. Patrick Lee, former group financial controller, pleaded guilty and was fined in July 2015. Three others charged were former president See Leong Teck, another former president Chang Cheow Teck, and senior vice president (finance) Ong Tek Liam.
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