A boss of a construction firm pleaded guilty on October 11, 2011, to ten charges of obtaining kickbacks from foreign employees. This was in violation of the law that prohibited employers of foreign workers from demanding or receiving any benefit for hiring them.
Kenneth Lim Ong Long also pleaded guilty to making false declarations to the Ministry of Manpower. He did so by inflating the number of local employees he had – checks found he had at least six phantom local workers – in order to get more work permits based on the quota system. He then collected $6,000 from each of the 30 Chinese nationals he hired last year.
The maximum punishment for accepting a kickback is a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term. For making each false statement, he could be fined up to $15,000 or jailed for up to a year, or both. He will appear in court again on October 21 for sentencing.
Source: Straits Times, October 11, 2011: Boss fakes workers’ list to hire foreigners