Kidney-for-sale: CK Tang chairman charged with 3 counts
BY: Salma Khalik
CK Tang's chairman Tang Wee Sung, 55, was charged in court on Thursday afternoon with trying to buy a kidney from a living donor, for which he was willing to pay $300,000 to a middleman to procure it.
Tang faces three counts - two under the Human Organ Transplant Act which bans the sale of human organs, and another for making a false declaration.
He is said to have arranged with Wang Chin Sing, Whang Sung Lin and other persons to get a kidney from a living donor, Indonesian Sulaiman Damanik, 26, between April and June 19.
The charge states that he agreed to pay $300,000 to Wang for 'the supply' of the kidney from Mr Sulaiman in June.
The second charge accuses him of lying to the Commissioner for Oaths that he did not pay any money to procure the organ and that he was related to Mr Sulaiman.
On the third charge, he is said to have also lied in his application to the transplant ethics committee.
Sung, in blue shirt, dark tie and pants, was to have been charged on Thursday morning at the same time as Wang, 43, but he did not show up because he had to go to Gleneagles Hospital.
He turned up in court 20 minutes earlier in the afternoon to face the charges, accompanied by his nurse, and a number of family members and friends, looking calm.
The court granted him bail of $15,000 and fixed a pre-trial conference on July 21.
Earlier on Thursday morning, Wang, said to be the middleman in the kidney-for-sale arrangement, was charged with 10 counts for his involvement in procuring kidneys for recipients - Tang and Juliana Soh - from two living donors.
Sulaiman, 26, was to have received about 150 million rupiah (about S$23,700) for supplying his organ to Tang. He was dealt with last week together with another Indonesian and was released last Saturday after serving his three-week jail term.
He was arrested on June 19 after the ethics committee had given the approval for the transplant but the authorities stepped in before the transplant could go ahead.
