Indian jailed in S'pore for duping employer into paying over Rs 31 cr

An Indian national has been sentenced in Singapore to 30 months in prison for duping his employer into making payments totalling over SG$5.1 million (Rs 31 crore) to other companies linked to him, a media report said.

Hussain Naina Mohamed, a 47-year-old assistant shipping manager at a construction firm, pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine counts of cheating involving more than SG$$2.5 million and one count of moving a portion of his ill-gotten gains out of Singapore, The Straits Times reported.

During the sentencing, 16 other charges, including those involving the remaining amount, were also considered.

Hussian told investigators that he had sent the money to India to help cover his parents' household expenses.

The payments took place between 2009 and 2019, causing at least SG$500,000 in losses to Utracon Corporation where Hussain worked until January 2019.

Hussain, whose responsibilities included making vendor recommendations to his superiors, also did not inform his employer that he was a partner at a company called Al Rahman Enterprises & Trading (Aret).

Instead, he recommended Aret as well as his father's firm to be his employer's vendor for marine insurance, freight-forwarding services, and plastic components.

The prosecution told the court that Utracon would not have awarded jobs to these firms had it known about the conflict of interest.

The companies recommended by Hussain did provide services to Utracon as its vendors, which resulted in a financial loss of at least SG$500,000 to Utracon as a result of the cheating.

Hussain admitted in the court that he had set up the firm solely to earn some cash from Utracon, and due to his dishonesty, Utracon ended up paying SG$705,000 to Aret.

In addition, Utracon was induced to award jobs to his father's firm, and ended up paying more than SG$1.4 million to it.

In 2011, he entered into an illicit agreement for Indus Global Line (IGL) to submit inflated quotations to Utracon for freight-forwarding services due to which Utracon was cheated of SG$375,000, The Straits Times reported.

On six occasions between May 2014 and November 2017, Hussain amassed SG$142,000 from his ill-gotten gains by methods that included engaging the services of local remittance agents. (IANS/NS)