SINGAPORE — A former business director is the first of two individuals to be sentenced after she was convicted of conspiring to cheat Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and its subsidiaries of more than S$190,000.

Louise Lai Pei Hsien, a 43-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty on Monday (Nov 18) to multiple charges of cheating and was jailed 17 months.

No restitution of the amount cheated has been made to date.

Court documents showed that Lai was the former director of I-KnowHow, a company set up in July 2014 to provide services to companies looking to outsource their market research, website and mobile application development and other information technology jobs.

She had worked together with Cheng Choong Hung, also known as Viktor, to commit the offences.

They both met when they were colleagues at the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore, though it was not stated how long they have known each other.

Cheng, now 55, was a former director of NTUitive, an innovation and enterprise arm of NTU. He also held the top posts at NTU’s other subsidiary, the Institute of Media Innovation, as well as NTUitive's subsidiary TechBiz Xccelerator.

Lai set up I-KnowHow under the advice of Cheng, who then controlled the business aspects of the operation.

The pair agreed to use I-KnowHow to tender for projects from the three NTU subsidiaries. Aside from these NTU-related projects, the company did not have any other business dealings.

However, as they knew that there would be a conflict of interest due to Cheng’s position in the subsidiaries, they agreed that his connection to I-KnowHow should be hidden and he should not be registered as a director, shareholder or otherwise in connection with the company.

One of their plots to cheat concerned a research job.

In late 2014, Cheng tasked a young woman, Ms Lu Jiawen, also known as Carmen, to do research on a “reciprocal frame” software and to apply for the i.JAM grant with that research.

Ms Lu got to know Cheng when she was interviewed by him for a job vacancy at TechBiz Xccelerator, after her final-year presentation as a student at NTU. Cheng later introduced her to Lai.

Following Cheng’s instructions, Ms Lu applied for and was given a S$50,000 funding under the grant sponsored by the Infocomm and Media Development Authority and administered by startup incubators such as NTUitive. She could make claims for the grant money, which had to be backed by invoices before it was disbursed.

During or before April 2015, Lai and Cheng agreed to raise invoices from I-KnowHow addressed to Ms Lu, stating that the firm had carried out outsourced work for Ms Lu under the software project.

Lai submitted the invoices to Ms Lu, knowing that they would be addressed to NTUitive. However, I-KnowHow did not do any of the work on the software project.

It was done by someone called Yu Hang, a senior software engineer at NTU’s subsidiary, the Institute of Media Innovation, who was hired by Cheng and who reported to him for work at the time.

For this project, a total of S$34,000 in grant money was disbursed to Ms Lu between June and August 2015. She then transferred the sums to I-KnowHow.

USED HUSBAND’S NAME TO CHEAT

Separately on her own, Lai used her husband’s name to cheat NTU of another S$30,000 in 2016.

She was engaged then by NTU as a freelance consultant for six months, but she later submitted an invoice to the university saying she needed someone to help her with the project.

Her husband Wong Chee Leong was not involved at all in Lai’s projects for NTU. He ran his own business dealing with the maintenance, servicing and installation of air-conditioners. 

He did not do any work for NTU, nor did Lai plan for him to do so.  

When Lai showed her husband the contract, he was unable to understand it because it was in English, but he signed on it anyway at his wife’s order. He also opened a bank account to receive payment from NTU for his part in the contract.

Through these and other plots across Lai’s 15 charges, she dishonestly induced NTU and its subsidiaries to pay a total of S$191,000.

Cheng faces a total of 120 charges for offences such as cheating, money laundering, and engaging in corrupt transactions.

He has yet to be sentenced and his next hearing is still pending.

For each charge of cheating, Cheng could be jailed up to 10 years and fined if convicted. For laundering money gained from cheating, Cheng could get a jail term of up to 10 years, or a fine of up to S$500,000, or both.