Headline in Straits Times
“Terry Tan-Soo I-Hse, 39, and Clarence Lim Jun Yao, 30, face a total of 442 charges for operating and using three sham companies to collect fees from more than 300 foreign job seekers for jobs that did not exist,” said the Straits Times in a report 20 October 2017.
The “sham employment businesses that fraudulently collected fees from foreign job seekers” were named as Asia Recruit (now known as Alliance Recruit) of which Tan-Soo was the director. Lim was director of Asiajobmart and UUBR International (now known as Connectsia).
The newspaper said that they had submitted 449 work pass applications to MOM, but 445 of these were rejected. It is not clear whether these work pass applications were for Employment Passes, S Passes or Worker Permits, or a mix of them. Nor did the report indicate how much in fees they had collected. Likewise, no information was available regarding the types of jobs allegedly offered, the nationalities of victims or these two men’s modus operandi.
MOM’s press statement indicated that they faced charges under the Companies Act and the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Tan-Soo also faces charges under the Employment Agencies Act. It is not specified in the story or MOM’s press statement which sections of these statutes are involved.