31/05/2023

Last Two Members of Criminal Syndicate Convicted for their Involvement in Multi-Million Dollar Fraud on SkillsFuture Singapore

The last two members of the syndicate, Sim Soon Lee (“Sim”) and Lim Wee Hong David (“Lim”), have been convicted for cheating, forgery and money laundering offences on 15 July 2022 and 17 March 2023 respectively, for their involvement in a multi-million dollar fraud on SkillsFuture Singapore (“SSG”). Sim and Lim were sentenced to 172 months’ and 165 months’ imprisonment on 15 July 2022 and 31 May 2023 respectively. There were two key members of the criminal syndicate, Ng Cheng Kwee (“Ng”) and Lee Lai Leng (“Lee”), that were convicted on 23 April 2021 and sentenced on 16 August 2021. This marks the conclusion of the prosecution against all the offenders in this case.  

Between April 2017 and October 2017, the main masterminds of the syndicate, Ng and Lee, together with Sim, Lim and other operatives of the syndicate, agreed on a scheme to submit false course fee grant claims to cheat SSG into disbursing training grants. The syndicate registered nine dormant entities – six entities as applicant companies and three entities as training providers – with SSG, using the SingPass login credentials of Ng, Lee and their family members.

Sometime in late April 2017, Ng, Lee, Sim, Lim and other operatives of the syndicate decided to perpetrate the scheme on a larger scale. Sim was tasked to recruit other individuals as nominee directors for the nine entities to obscure the identities of the syndicate members, and to evade detection by the authorities.

Between April to October 2017, the syndicate submitted a total of 8,381 course fee grant applications and a corresponding 8,391 claims to SSG. These submissions involved 25,141 employees purportedly working for the six applicant entities, who had purportedly attended training courses conducted by the three training providers. In fact, no training courses were conducted and none of the 25,141 individuals were employees of the applicant entities. The syndicate’s scheme resulted in SSG disbursing approximately $39.9 million of training grants in total to the corporate bank accounts of eight applicant entities and training providers.

After the training grants had been disbursed by SSG to the bank accounts of eight of the entities, Sim and Lim assisted the syndicate to launder the criminal proceeds. They accompanied the nominee directors to withdraw the criminal proceeds in cash, by encashing cheques issued from the corporate bank accounts of the entities or other bank accounts controlled by members of the syndicate. The cash was then handed over to Ng or Lee.

Lim’s money-laundering offences extended beyond the encashing of cheques. On one occasion, on Ng’s instructions, Lim collected two bags containing cash of $2.6 million from Lee and passed the bags to two unknown persons. On another occasion, on Ng’s instructions, Lim concealed cash of $900,000 in the boot of Lee’s car, then drove the car to a secluded place in Singapore. These steps were taken in a deliberate attempt to conceal the ill-gotten proceeds from the Police.

With the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against Sim and Lim, all members of the criminal syndicate have been convicted for their involvement in the multi-million fraud¹. Annex A sets out the details of the convictions.

The Police treats abuse of government grants seriously and will not hesitate to take action against such offenders. Offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law.

SSG has taken steps to prevent similar cases of fraud from recurring. SSG will impose severe penalties on individuals, training providers or applicant companies who abuse SSG’s funding schemes and subsidies, and will not hesitate to refer to the Police any individuals who commit such acts. SSG remains vigilant and asks members of the public to also keep a close watch. The public can provide information of potential fraud or abuse cases at audit@ssg.gov.sg, or via the hotline at 6326 2828.