Jail for man who worked with boss to pay nearly $25k in bribes to FairPrice employee

SINGAPORE – A man working for a fish wholesaler conspired with his then boss to give nearly $25,000 in bribes to a senior team leader with supermarket chain FairPrice.

The prosecution said Ngow Chun Siong worked with Chew Kim Hwee to bribe Lim Kian Kok on at least eight occasions in 2020 to induce him to buy more fish from their firm.

At the time of the offences, Ngow, 44, performed tasks such as transporting fish for Fish Vision Agro-tech, while Chew was a director and majority shareholder at the firm.

Separately, Ngow was also caught for drink-driving in April 2022.

On Monday, he was sentenced to seven months’ jail and a fine of $4,000 after he pleaded guilty to one count each of drink-driving and graft. He was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for 2½ years.

The cases involving Lim, 48, who is no longer working for FairPrice, and Chew, 47, are pending.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei said Fish Vision operated a stall at Jurong Fishery Port, and Lim was overseeing FairPrice’s buying operations there from July 1, 2013, to October 2020.

Lim had the discretion to decide which seafood supplier he would purchase from as well as the amount.

The DPP said: “Sometime in or before February 2020, Ngow asked Lim if he could purchase more fish from Fish Vision. Lim then asked Ngow what he would receive if he did so. By doing so, he was implying that he would purchase more fish from Fish Vision if Ngow gave him money.”

Ngow told Chew what Lim had said and sought his approval to bribe Lim. When Chew agreed to offer Lim 20 cents for each kilogram of fish he purchased from Fish Vision, Lim accepted the deal, said DPP Tan.

According to court documents, Ngow handed Lim nearly $25,000 in total over multiple occasions between February and September 2020.

DPP Tan said that after receiving each payment, Lim gave half of the cash to Ngow, amounting to nearly $12,500.

Lim had usually purchased about 200kg of fish per day from Fish Vision on behalf of FairPrice. After the corrupt deal, the amount went up to around 400kg to 600kg per day.