Foreign-worker employment scam: Mastermind gets 42 months of jail time

THE mastermind behind an employment scam was sentenced to a total of 42 months of jail time, the Ministry of Manpower said on Wednesday.

Mui Chee Mun, a Singaporean, was sentenced to 36 months' imprisonment for fraudulently obtaining work passes for 37 foreign workers for a company that was not in operation.

He was further sentenced to another 24 weeks' imprisonment for collecting bribes from them to prevent their work passes from being cancelled.

Mui, 53, was found to have managed a shell company, Blue Apple Design Pte Ltd, for the sole purpose of bringing in foreign workers with no intention of providing work for them.

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

Mui got work passes for 37 foreign workers between May 2014 and February 2015. He subsequently collected monthly kickbacks from each foreign worker to ensure their work passes were not cancelled. These workers subsequently were "released" to find employment illegally. Mui made more than S$46,000 in kickbacks from the foreign workers.

Mui was charged with a total of 74 counts under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. He pleaded guilty to the charges in August.