The MOM prosecutor said that at the time of his offences, Ho was the operations manager of Lian Cheng Contracting, which was the subcontractor for the
Nee Soon and Pasir Ris-Punggol town councils.
As the operations manager, he was in charge of maintenance of Housing Board estates and managed conservancy workers under his firm.
The scheme was first devised in 2014 by Ho and his former colleague, referred to in court documents only as Rakibul.
The pair agreed to collect renewal fees of $1,500 to $3,000 from each worker as a consideration for his continued employment in Lian Cheng Contracting.
The pair agreed that for every $1,500 collected for one-year renewals, Ho would take a cut of $1,000, and for every $3,000 collected for two-year renewals, he would take a cut of $2,000.
Rakibul would then keep the remaining $500 or $1,000.
In 2018, Ho roped in another site supervisor, identified in court documents as Shamim, to assist in the collection of renewal fees as Rakibul had left Singapore.
In 2020, Ho sought the assistance of two other workers, Dhar Newton and Ahamed Rana, under his charge to demand renewal fees from other foreign workers.
Investigations revealed that Shamim, Newton and Rana agreed to collect the renewal fees as they were also subjected to such fees by Ho.
The prosecution said the collection of renewal fees was unsanctioned by Lian Cheng Contracting or its management, and Ho had acted of his own accord in implementing these collections.