Employment scam mastermind who targeted foreign workers jailed 42 months

SINGAPORE - He managed a shell company for the sole purpose of bringing in foreign workers with no intention of providing work for them.

He then used the details of the company's registered director without the latter's knowledge to apply for the work passes, declaring that the workers would be employed as construction workers and electricians. In reality, the workers sought their own employment illegally.

In all, he fraudulently obtained worked passes for 37 foreign workers and collected more than $46,000 in kickbacks from them to prevent their passes from being cancelled,

A Ministry of Manpower statement today (Dec 7) said that Mui Chee Mun, 53, was sentenced to 42 months of jail after pleading guilty to 74 counts of charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

The statement added that Mui has also been permanently barred from employing foreign workers.

MOM's investigations revealed that Mui managed the shell company Blue Apple Design.

He also made CPF contributions to local "phantom workers", fabricated employment contracts and salary vouchers to avoid detection and to give the impression that he was operating a genuine company.

But investigations also showed that he did not operate alone.

Bangladeshi Reza Salim, 42, was employed by Mui to assist with the collection of kickbacks. He was paid a monthly salary of $1,200 for his services.

For his role, Reza was jailed for 18 weeks on July 22. He has also been permanently barred from working in Singapore.

debwong@sph.com.sg