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The husband and wife duo behind the S$39.9 million SkillsFuture scam — Singapore's largest fraud against a public institution — were sentenced to imprisonment on Aug. 16.

Couple had 232 charges altogether

Ng Cheng Kwee, 45, and his wife, Lee Lai Leng, 43, were sentenced to 17 years and 9 months, and 14 years in jail respectively, said the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) in a joint news release.

The couple were accused of cheating, forgery, money laundering, obstructing justice, and other offences.

Ng was found guilty of 20 charges out of a total of 134 charges, while Lee was convicted of 16 out of her 98 charges.

Ng and Lee's other charges were considered in their sentencing.

Six others convicted previously, proceedings against three more ongoing

The husband and wife were described as "key members" of a criminal syndicate that carried out the scam.

They had roped in nine others in the scam, of which six were convicted in 2018 and 2019, and handed jail terms ranging from two years and nine months, to eight years and eight months.

Court proceedings against the three remaining members of the scam are ongoing, said SPF and SSG.

Behind the S$39.9 million SkillsFuture scam

The couple's scam target was SkillsFuture, a lifelong learning educational scheme by the government that subsidises training costs for employees.

This subsidies are paid out in the form of reimbursements of course fees, either to training providers or the businesses whose employees attend courses.

Using various forged documents, such as CPF statements and utilities and rental bills, Ng and Lee registered nine dormant shell entities as applicant companies and training providers with SSG.

To evade raising suspicion and detection, the duo enlisted three other participants to be nominee directors of the nine entities. These three individuals handed over their SingPass credentials in exchange for financial gains.

In total, 8,381 fraudulent course fee grant applications, and a corresponding 8,391 claims, which were worth the sum of S$39.9 million, were submitted to SSG between Apr. 2017 and Oct. 2017.

These submissions involved 25,141 "employees", who supposedly worked for six of the bogus applicant business entities and attended training courses conducted by three dormant training providers.

Falsified documents submitted after applications flagged for manual checks

SSG flagged out some of the course fee grant applications and claims for manual checks, but Ng and Lee submitted forged or falsified documents to SSG between May 2017 and Aug. 2017, including employment contracts and attendance records of training courses.

However, no training courses were in fact conducted, and none of the 25,141 individuals were employees of the applicant entities, said SPF and SSG.

It was previously reported that SSG detected anomalies in claims for training grants at the end of Oct. 2017, and immediately suspended all payments of grants and reported the case to the Police.

What happened to the S$39.9 million?

The government training grants were reimbursed into the corporate bank accounts of eight entities.

Ng and Lee then cashed out the corporate accounts between Aug. 2017 and Sept. 2017, using cheques, and with the help of their accomplices.

The cash would change hands, but wound up in the couple's clutches ultimately.

Under Ng's instruction, Lee bought a safe for the purpose of safekeeping their ill-gotten proceeds.

The safe, in the flat of Lee's brother, Lee Chi Wai, held 11kg worth of gold bars that Ng and Lee bought, and a sum of S$6,742,380 in cold hard cash at one point.

Shortly before Lee's arrest on Nov. 2, 2017, he had given instructions to Lee Chi Wai and another syndicate operative to move the assets to different locations for safekeeping.

Ng also instructed Lee to throw her handphone away, knowing that it contained incriminating evidence.

However, Ng was arrested soon after on Dec. 4, 2017, upon returning to Singapore from China.

The police seized "substantial cash" and froze a number of bank accounts involved in the case, back in 2017.

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Top image courtesy of Singapore Police Force and SkillsFuture Singapore

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