Three Persons Sentenced to Imprisonment in Connection to Bribery of Indonesian Embassy Official

23 AUG 2021

On 23 August 2021, three individuals were sentenced for corruption offences following their conviction by the Court on 28 April 2021. They are:

  • Abdul Aziz Bin Mohamed Hanib (“Aziz”) (66-year-old Singaporean), a freelance translator at the material time, was sentenced to 17 months’ imprisonment and a penalty of S$18,299.82.

  • Yeo Siew Liang James (“Yeo”) (杨秀良, 50-year-old-Singaporean), an insurance agent for AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte Ltd (“AIG”) and Liberty Insurance Pte Ltd (“Liberty”) at the material time, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of S$21,363.30.

  • Chow Tuck Keong Benjamin (“Chow”) (周德强, 58-year-old-Singaporean), was sentenced to 1 month imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of S$4,574.96.

2. Starting from 1 February 2018, the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Singapore made it compulsory for all employers in Singapore hiring Indonesian foreign domestic workers to purchase a S$6,000 performance bond (“the PB”). Agus Ramdhany Machjumi (“Agus”), the Labour Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia at the material time, was in charge of issuing accreditation to insurers for the PB. Agus directed Aziz to look for insurance companies or agents who would agree to give them a share of the premiums collected from the local employers in exchange for accreditation.

3. Sometime in October 2017, Aziz was introduced to Yeo by Chow. Yeo agreed to share his commissions with Agus and Aziz, which would come from the sales of PBs. Subsequently, from March to June 2018, Yeo gave bribes amounting to S$71,211 to Agus through Aziz. The bribes were meant as a reward for Agus for accrediting AIG and Liberty (on behalf of the Indonesian Embassy) to sell the PBs. Yeo also corruptly gave a total of S$21,363.30 to Aziz as a reward for arranging with Agus to show favour to AIG and Liberty to be accredited. Aziz and Yeo were charged in Court on 21 November 2018 with 18 counts of corruption offences under section 5(a)(i) and 5(b)(i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (“PCA”) respectively. For intentionally aiding Aziz to solicit corrupt gratification, Chow was also charged on 21 November 2018 with one count for a corruption offence under section 5(a)(i) read with section 29(a) of the PCA.

4. Separately, Aziz was also found to have corruptly solicited gratification for Agus from another individual as an inducement for Agus to show favour to Tokio Marine Insurance Singapore Ltd for it to be accredited as a provider of PBs. His corrupt offer was not taken up by the individual. As a result, he was charged with one additional count of corruption under section 5(a)(i) of the PCA.

5. The Indonesian authorities have been in touch with CPIB about this case.

6. Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption. Any person who is convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to S$100,000 or sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or to both.

7. CPIB looks into all corruption complaints and reports, including anonymous ones, and can be reached via the following channels:
a) Lodge an e-Complaint;
b) Email us at report@cpib.gov.sg;
c) Call the Duty Officer at 1800-376-0000; or
d) Write to us at the CPIB Headquarters @ 2 Lengkok Bahru, S159047.

8. Where possible, the report should include the following information:
a) Where, when and how the alleged corrupt act happened?
b) Who was involved and what were their roles?
c) What was the bribe given and the favour shown?

Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau