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The last two members of a criminal syndicate that scammed SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) of S$39.9 million — the largest case of fraud committed against a public institution in Singapore — have been sentenced to jail.

According to a joint press release by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and SSG, Sim Soon Lee and Lim Wee Hong David were convicted for cheating, forgery and money laundering offences.

Sim was sentenced to 14 years and four months in prison on Jul. 15, 2022, and Lim was sentenced to 13 years and nine months imprisonment on May 31, 2023.

Scam involved a total of 11 people

As for the "key members" of the syndicate, 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 in August 2021.

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.

At the time of the couple's sentencing, court proceedings against the three remaining members of the scam were ongoing.

Both SPF and SSG added that sentencing of Sim and Lim marks the conclusion of the prosecution against all of the offenders in the case.

How did the scam work?

Created fake entities

Between April 2017 and October 2017, the main masterminds of the syndicate, the couple, 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 the couple and their family members.

Sometime in late April 2017, the couple, along with 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.

Submitted over 8,000 course fee grant applications under these entities

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.

However, no training courses were actually conducted and none of the 25,141 individuals were employees of the applicant entities.

The syndicate’s scheme resulted in SSG disbursing approximately S$39.9 million of training grants in total to the corporate bank accounts of eight applicant entities and training providers.

Laundered the disbursements

Following the disbursement of the training grants 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 the couple.

In the case of Lim, his money-laundering offences extended beyond the encashing of cheques.

On one occasion, on Ng’s instructions, Lim collected two bags containing cash of S$2.6 million from Lee and passed the bags to two unknown persons.

On another occasion, on Ng’s instructions, Lim concealed cash of S$900,000 in the boot of Lee’s car, then drove the car to a secluded place in Singapore.

The press release added that these steps were taken in a deliberate attempt to conceal the ill-gotten proceeds from the police.

SSG to penalise people or entities who abuse its funding

SSG further stated that it has since taken steps to prevent similar cases of fraud from recurring and asked the public to keep a "close watch".

It added that it 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.

Top left photo via SSG/Facebook, right photo by Mothership