Did you catch it?
A Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) senior executive who misappropriated more than 750 printer cartridges from the agency and sold them on Carousell was joked about on the US talk show Late Night With Seth Meyers.
In the show's opening monologue on Thursday (April 6), host Seth Meyers said: "A government official in Singapore was recently sentenced to two years in jail after he allegedly sold more than 600 stolen cartridges online."
The punchline: "No word on what happened to the trillions of dollars he made."
If you do not get the joke, many of the studio audience members apparently did not either, judging by the subdued laughter the joke received.
Meyers then adlibbed: "I'm from the generation where we had to buy our own printer cartridge. They get you on the cyan. Is that the one they get you on, Baze?"
"Baze" refers to Alex Baze, a writer and producer of the show.
On Monday (April 3), 45-year-old Zulkiflie Yacob, who is no longer with CRA, was sentenced to two years and a month’s jail after he pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal breach of trust involving 621 cartridges worth nearly $80,000, reported The Straits Times.
A third charge involving the remaining 132 cartridges worth more than $13,000 was considered during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Niranjan Ranjakunalan noted that the CRA was a statutory board under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is now known as the Gambling Regulatory Authority.
As a CRA employee, Zulkiflie’s job scope included procuring office supplies and purchasing printer cartridges.
To commit his offences, he deliberately over-ordered cartridges between April 1, 2016 and Oct 30, 2018.
The DPP said: “The accused did so with the intention of dishonestly misappropriating and selling some of these printer cartridges, and pocketing the sales proceeds.”
The CRA lodged a police report after discovering discrepancies between the number of cartridges purchased and the number of those used, as well as how many such items were left in stock.
Zulkiflie was arrested on March 12, 2020, and was released on bail soon after.
On Jan 15, 2023, Zulkiflie made partial restitution of $25,000 to the Gambling Regulatory Authority.
Defence lawyer Azri Imran Tan from IRB Law said that his client has completely handed over all benefits he received from the offences.
Mr Tan said that, according to his client, the toners and cartridges were sold at a markdown from their original purchase prices, at around $50 to $100 individually.
Another Singapore court case was recently brought up in another monologue on another US comedy program, The Daily Show, in February. While guest hosting, comedian Chelsea Handler joked about a Singapore man suing a woman for $3 million for "friendzoning" him.
She joked: "And this is why I don't date anyone from Singapore."
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This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.
