Ex-STTA chief cleared of 1 charge
Ian Poh
The Straits Times
Monday, Jul 29, 2013
Former chief of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) Choo Wee Khiang was on Friday acquitted of misusing its money to pay a coach who moonlighted at a school.
But the former Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC, who is widely credited with Singapore's silver medal success at the 2008 Olympics, is not in the clear yet.
Choo, 59, bowed solemnly from the dock after a district court cleared him of one charge of criminal breach of trust, following his arrest in 2011 and a trial that began in February this year.
He later declined to comment to the media in view of a possible appeal by the prosecution, with three corruption charges against him still pending.
Choo had been accused of misappropriating $8,400 in 2005 from the association, which he was then president of, to pay an assistant coach who moonlighted at Fuhua Secondary School from 2001 to 2003.
Ms Koh Li Ping, a 45-year-old former high-performance manager with the association, was also cleared of abetting Choo to commit the offence.
A key issue in favour of Choo was what the money entrusted to him had been meant for.
District Judge Lim Tse Haw found that the money - taken out of a $9,600 training and consultancy contract between the school and association - was meant for the "special" purpose of paying Chinese national Luo Jie the money that the school owed him for coaching work.
This contract was really a "front" for the school to pay Mr Luo, the judge found, since the coach - whose work permit allowed him to work only for the STTA - had flouted employment laws here by moonlighting.
Choo thus did not need further approval to use the $8,400 to pay the coach, and had therefore not breached his duties to the association.
"At worst, (Choo) is guilty of negligence in agreeing to charge below market rate to defray the association's costs in rendering coaching services to Fuhua," the judge saidon Frirday.
This behaviour, added the judge, was not dishonest coming from someone who did not gain personally from the matter, and who had wanted to help Mr Luo get his payment so the coach could focus on his coaching duties with the association.
Neither had Choo caused any wrongful loss to the association in approving the payment, since Fuhua's principal would not have agreed to pay the fees for the consultancy contract if it was not for the purpose of paying the coach.
Judge Lim added that Mr Luo, who has since gained permanent resident status, was contractually entitled to be paid in return for giving the private coaching - even if employment laws here may have been infringed, which is a separate issue.
Choo, who could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined had he been convicted, has also claimed trial for three other charges of corruption. These include accepting bribes from former coaches and a national player between 2003 and 2005.
A pre-trial conference has been fixed for next Tuesday.
Choo stepped down from the association in 2008 after nearly 20 years at the helm. He was last understood to be involved in golf course management.
