• Ong Jiajie agreed to giving kickbacks to Lion City Rentals’ purchasing manager
• He knew this was illegal, but he wanted to improve his standard of living
• Ong received S$129,422 as his share from the corrupt deal

SINGAPORE — A manager of a car dealership agreed to participate in a scheme with two other men to pay more than S$388,000 in kickbacks to a purchasing manager of car rental firm Lion City Rentals, in exchange for furthering their respective businesses.

On Tuesday (May 11), Ong Jiajie, 32, was jailed for six months and fined S$129,422 after he pleaded guilty earlier to two charges of corruption. Five other similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

Ong was the manager of D&M Capital when the offences took place. 

The case also involves three other individuals: Jeremy Yu, 41, Lion City Rentals’ purchasing manager; Darren Zeng, 40, the manager and partner of motor vehicle trader Aiden Solutions; and Issac Lai, 40, who oversaw the financial matters of Aiden Solutions and D&M.

All four were charged on Nov 25 last year. 

Ong, along with Zeng and Lai, were charged with engaging in a conspiracy to corruptly give Yu S$388,266 in bribes as a reward for advancing the business interests of Aiden Solutions and D&M with Lion City Rentals. 

Yu was charged with corruptly obtaining the bribes.

Aside from Ong, the cases of the other three men are still before the courts.

THE CASE

The court heard the conspiracy began around the middle of 2015.

Ong was then overseeing D&M’s operations, which included sourcing for and purchasing used and new vehicles before reselling them to Lion City Rentals.  

Yu allegedly told Ong that he could provide the latter with business by arranging for Lion City Rentals' purchase of cars from D&M.

Ong’s company, Yu purportedly said, would stand to earn a profit from the arrangement, which came from the difference between the selling price of cars to Lion City Rentals and the purchase price of the cars from car dealers and other sources. 

In return, Ong was required to pay Yu a kickback, which would be calculated as a percentage of the profits earned by D&M. 

Between September and October of 2015, all four men met on many occasions.

Yu said that he wanted to grow Lion City Rentals to be the biggest car rental company in Singapore and to do so, he needed to buy a projected 1,000 cars within the next year. 

Yu allegedly said that he would make use of his position in Lion City Rentals to recommend that D&M and Aiden Solutions be appointed as the company’s vehicle suppliers. 

In return, Yu was said to require a cash kickback of 50 per cent of the total profits generated by both D&M and Aiden Solutions to be paid to him as a reward, with the remaining 50 per cent of the said profits shared equally among Ong, Zeng and Lai. 

Court documents stated that Ong knew the arrangement was illegal, but he went ahead because he wanted to use the illicit profits to improve his standard of living. 

The S$388,266 in bribes constituted part of the profits from the sale of 504 vehicles by D&M and Aiden Solutions to Lion City Rentals. 

These vehicles were valued at a total of S$38,366,633 and the total profits earned by D&M and Aiden Solutions from the said sale was S$776,532.

Ong received S$129,422 as his share from the corrupt deal.

For each count of corruption, Ong could have been jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$100,000, or both.