May 16, 2011
Ex-seafood supplier admits to bribing chefs
By Elena Chong
Tay Ee Tiong, 55, has been charged with 223 charges of giving bribes totalling $992,404 to 19 chefs. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A FORMER seafood supplier who bribed more than a dozen chefs from top restaurants and hotels pleaded guilty on Monday to 20 counts of corruption involving $160,186. Tay Ee Tiong, 55, now a consultant, has been charged with 223 charges of giving bribes totalling $992,404 to 19 chefs from 17 restaurants and hotels from 2006 to 2009.
Tay was the owner of Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise, which supplied dry seafood products such as sharks fin, abalone, scallops and other seafood products to local hotel establishments and restaurants.
Following a tip-off in July 2009 that there was widespread corruption among chefs from local hotel establishments and restaurants who had obtained bribes from Tay in return for continuing to order seafood products from Wealthy, Tay was called in for investigation.
The court heard that Tay, now a bankrupt, personally approached each head chef and promised him commissions in return for showing favour to Wealthy. These commissions were calculated based on 5 to 10 per cent of the total value of seafood products bought from his company. He would hand over the money to the chef once in every two to three months. His sister kept written records of these corrupt payments.
His lawyer Choo Si Sen had asked the court for a fine saying no public interest was involved but District Judge Jasvender Kaur felt that there was always a public interest where corruption was concerned.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vala Muthupalaniappan also urged the court to sentence Tay to between three and eight months' jail on each proceeded charge.
