SLF Singapore Labour Foundation - One Powerful Body

[scroobal]

Not SLF funds but funds of Omnibus Unions he controlled. The amount was relatively small. He used union funds to invest in a private venture and also bought some tour buses again using union funds.

So is that why Phey Yew Kok was a fugitive and did he run road with SLF money? Or was he also paid off and given another id and free passage to another country to keep silent on SLF?

 

[SneeringTree]

Something is wrong when a so-called foundation can build a swanky office building in Marina using 200 million ++++ of its "own" money.

 

[Ramseth]

hahaha.....tonite,in a mood to BS a bit......
why he ran road is a no brainer......he was accused of swindling the trade unions of a lot of money and was to be arrested and charged in court.
now the BS parts and there is 101 conspiracy theories.....
he was allowed to run away because he had too many worms to spill in an open court.....
he was reported to be in thailand or taiwan.....
kukubird always had 1 question in mind......if he had known too much, why was he not silenced for good?
maybe papee is balckmailed and the dirty secrets are safe as long as he is ok.....
you can speculate as many conspiracy theories as you allow your fertile mind.....

PYK took SILO money and ran. Simple as that. Even his Merz he abandoned. Car plate 6666. 6666 struck 4-D 1st prize two weeks after he ran.

 

[zeddy]

December 1979 Phey Yew Kok, President of the NTUC and a PAP MP, was charged on four counts of criminal breach of trust involving a total sum of S$83,000.

He was also charged on two counts under the Trade Unions Act for investing $18,000 of trade-union money in a private supermarket without the approval of the minister. As was normal in such cases, he was released on bail, but unusually he was not asked to surrender his passport.

Devan Nair, as Secretary-General of the NTUC, was close to Phey Yew Kok and believed in his innocence. He wanted the CPIB to review the case, saying that an innocent man was being destroyed on false charges. But after he read the evidence shown by the CPIB in confidence, Devan did not pursue the matter further.

Phey Yew Kok decided to jump bail, and his two sureties lost their $50,000 deposit. Some say he was last heard of in Thailand, eking out a miserable existence as a fugitive, others claim he is operating a transport company in Taiwan.

Source: Tattler http://swordofdemocles.blogspot.com/2005/09/real-rogues-gallery.html

 

[scroobal]

Interestingly when SLF erected its previous building off Thomson Road more than 25 years ago, it was also at that time the most swankiest building.

Something is wrong when a so-called foundation can build a swanky office building in Marina using 200 million ++++ of its "own" money.

 

[scroobal]

He did not empty the coffers of SILO. Just like Tang and Seow when the tax office was let loose. In his case, CPIB went thru the union books weeks before the Delegates meeting to select the next union chief which was supposed to be Lim Chee Onn. Phey made know his intention to stand for the post. He had 3 omnibus unions under him and simple maths would him the majority of votes. The money was used to buy tour buses for the unions amongst other things. Interestingly when he fled the tour buses were transferred to Police Welfare Office where it was used to organise trips for police officers to go to Haydyai during holidays.

Mind you he was not charged with corruption but CBT which should not have been handled by CPIB but Commercial Crime. What Phey was doing was building his power base by using union funds to provide perks to his member and enriching himself. It is the same with Jamit Singh of harbour board. Same Charges. They allow them to have a free hand and once they step out of line, they go after them.

Phey knew that the end was near as only few years back he did the same thing to Tan Wah Piow.

They not only went after the Head, they went after his support base and charged many others in his unionsl.

PYK took SILO money and ran. Simple as that. Even his Merz he abandoned. Car plate 6666. 6666 struck 4-D 1st prize two weeks after he ran.

 

[Ramseth]

Misappropriation for buses and buying support aside, he took a huge sum away from SILO. Unlike TLH and Francis who ran with their own money, PYK ran with SILO money. Police couldn't charge him since SILO was too freaked out to lodge official report and later merged with NTUC to mudge the accounts. Everybody then fogets about it and lives happily ever after. Nobody even remembers Singapore's basketball league, the PYK Cup.

 

[GoldenDragon]

Some say he was last heard of in Thailand, eking out a miserable existence as a fugitive, others claim he is operating a transport company in Taiwan.

Not sure what biz but he is in Taiwan. Has another family there. Wife in S'pore was a teacher. They have 2 sons.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

i wonder whether say janadas devan has forgotten??...

Misappropriation for buses and buying support aside, he took a huge sum away from SILO. Unlike TLH and Francis who ran with their own money, PYK ran with SILO money. Police couldn't charge him since SILO was too freaked out to lodge official report and later merged with NTUC to mudge the accounts. Everybody then fogets about it and lives happily ever after. Nobody even remembers Singapore's basketball league, the PYK Cup.

 

[HedgeTrader]

You guys are really old men with long memories. I only remember there was a SILO supermarket in childhood days. Later no more, all became NTUC.

 

[Confuseous]

Corruption was rife from top to bottom at that time. As they say, fish always rots from the top. Companies like Metro Supermarket (yes, Metro had supermarkets in those days!) found it strange that cashiers from SILO did not want to join them inspite of reasonably higher pay. Further investigations revealed that these cashiers were in cahoots with the owners of nearby provision stores. These owners lined up with (eg) $200 worth of goods and the cashiers keyed in only $100-00 and the proceeds were shared later.

Phey Yew Kok rented a couple of lorries to physically steal goods from his own supermarkets on the first day of CNY, when the supermarkets were closed. Someone took photographs (obviously not with digital cameras, and certainly no STOMP) and these surfaced later.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

wah now come to think of it phey sounds like the infamous american union boss jimmy hoffa...only thing phey smarter manage to 'disappear' on his own accord whereas hoffa probably fed to the fishes r part of some concrete foundation courtesy of the mafia!!

 

[scroobal]

After 6 months of investigations, they charged him on 4 counts of CBT amounting to less than $100K. SILO was running a chain of supermarkets and a forunner of NTUC. 2 other counts were in relation to unauthorised acts without seeking consent of a MInister. The value is small. And the charges were quite interesting . I have no doubt he is a crook like many in the Unions now and then.

To suggest the that 100K is a huge sum is surely an exaggeration.

They even charged one of his staff for CBT for an amount less than $50 and convicted him. People then knew that it was frighten the rest of the unionist from opposing Lim Chee Onn.

JBJ gave the PAP held in parliament and Lee Siew Choh later did the same. They actually after the drubbing in parliament placed a caveat on his own house claiming that it was purchased with funds stolen. The house was never re-possessed.

They kept claiming that he is in Thailand. It was Lee Siew Choh who revealed in parliament that he was in Taiwan.

 

[scroobal]

This is actually what happened. Phey and his buddies set a private supermarket called Safewell or something like that. On public holidays, his staff loaded goods from SILO supermarket main warehouse and sent these to Safewell supermarket. They then invoiced this company at cost price. There is therefore no loss on the books but no profit either.

In fact he was abusing his position to get his supplies cheaper by getting the buying power of SILO to benefit his company.

The interesting part was the charges were framed for the full cost of the goods and not from the margin forgone. The lawyer who defended them was Puvenanderan. He was surprised that though Phey fled all his men and women who was charged readily pleaded guilty despite the filmsy charges.

When JBJ asked in parliament why the police did not ask the court to have Phey's passport seized, Chua Sian Chin the MHA minister lied in parliament that the police officer forgot. Later after repeated questioning by JBJ, he revealed that the Police did ask for the passport to be seized. The solicitor general Ghow however did not do so. Why Chua SIan lied is not known.

Corruption was rife from top to bottom at that time. As they say, fish always rots from the top. Companies like Metro Supermarket (yes, Metro had supermarkets in those days!) found it strange that cashiers from SILO did not want to join them inspite of reasonably higher pay. Further investigations revealed that these cashiers were in cahoots with the owners of nearby provision stores. These owners lined up with (eg) $200 worth of goods and the cashiers keyed in only $100-00 and the proceeds were shared later.

Phey Yew Kok rented a couple of lorries to physically steal goods from his own supermarkets on the first day of CNY, when the supermarkets were closed. Someone took photographs (obviously not with digital cameras, and certainly no STOMP) and these surfaced later.

 

[scroobal]

When old man's one-time Head of his Police Security Branch ( personal body guard) embezzled much more from the Police Cooperative Fund than Phey Yew Kok and fled to China, he was persuaded to return to Singapore. No charges were preferred. The money was mysteriously paid back. Of course this chap did not stand against any of the old man's nominee.

 

[GoldenDragon]

when old man's one-time head of his police security branch ( personal body guard) embezzled much more from the police cooperative fund than phey yew kok and fled to china, he was persuaded to return to singapore. No charges were preferred. The money was mysteriously paid back. Of course this chap did not stand against any of the old man's nominee.

ong seng chye.

 

[kepala butoh]

I think some of you have forgotten several things:

1. $80,000 was a ALOT of money in 1979. You could still buy a bungalow in Changi, Sembawang, Serangoon Gardens. That property would be worth almost $2million dollars even 5 months ago now.

2. $80k was the tip of the iceberg. More would have come out in the court case.

3. Phey cut a powerful swathe in Singapore's political scene. He not only had alot of enemies in his own union - even Devan Nair once said in the ST I think that of all the unions, that one seemed to receive the most number of threats in the mail.

4. Phey was on the NWC. When some people in SIA didnt' want to donate money to schemes he supported e.g. lottery tickets, he actually HAD THEIR NWC wage increase and 13 month pay withheld!!!

5. Even in the NTUC he fought amongst some of his colleagues. He pulled the wool over Devan Nair's eyes and even Nair admitted this.

6. The issue of his fixing Tan Wah Piow will never go away. There's a school of thought that he was going to blurt the lot on the PAP/Government's role in assisting him to fix Tan.

7. The Straits Times/Government has been able to track down Francis Seow. LKY has said in his book that the man is believed to be in Thailand. If the place is so corrupt, you mean to say no one can offer a bigger bribe to locate him and do a story on him before he dies?

8. After Phey's downfall the NTUC even got letters from INDONESIA, believe it or not - people had actually left Singapore to live there because he made life so tough for them. It's incredible, he was a demi-god.

COME ON, spare us the bullshit!!!

 

[scroobal]

Yes. That's the prick. And he was named Designate Director General Customs when he went missing after the playing around with the stock market.

 

[kingrant]

You guys should compile the SBF Annals and Oral History for Singapore's squeaky clean antiseptic PAP govt.

 

[Ramseth]

After 6 months of investigations, they charged him on 4 counts of CBT amounting to less than $100K. SILO was running a chain of supermarkets and a forunner of NTUC. 2 other counts were in relation to unauthorised acts without seeking consent of a MInister. The value is small. And the charges were quite interesting . I have no doubt he is a crook like many in the Unions now and then.

They preferred charges after he ran, not to punish or call in account but to prevent him from coming back. SILO was supposed to run the supermarket co-operative. NTUC was supposed to run the department store co-operative, then known as NTUC Wellcome. Both were merged since, now known as NTUC FairPrice.