<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Hiring offences: Five charged
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->FIVE men were charged yesterday with making false statements to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) related to their hiring of foreign workers.
In all, they faced more than 120 charges.
The one with the most was Wong Seng Kiong, 57, of Guo Tai Mei Trading, who racked up 36 counts of providing false statements in applications for work passes for foreigners as well as 'phantom workers'.
Phantom workers are Singaporeans fraudulently listed as having been hired so that the employer becomes eligible to employ more foreign workers.
Wong faces another seven charges for recovering the foreign worker levy from the workers.
The person with the second-highest number of charges was Tan Guan Lai, 51, who had to answer to 34 counts of lying to MOM.
Low Ah Moi, 61, faced 28 similar charges.
The fourth man charged was Alfred Sim Kheng Swee, 45. He faced 20 counts of instigating, aiding or conspiring with an accomplice to provide false statements to MOM, and another four of breaching the conditions of the work passes issued to four workers by deploying them to other jobs.
The last man charged was Leong Chee Cheong, 59, who ran up eight counts of providing false statements to MOM.
The cases against the five will come before the court next month. All of them, except Leong, are out on bail of $15,000 each.
Leong, who is in a drug rehabilitation centre, said he had no one to bail him out.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->FIVE men were charged yesterday with making false statements to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) related to their hiring of foreign workers.
In all, they faced more than 120 charges.
The one with the most was Wong Seng Kiong, 57, of Guo Tai Mei Trading, who racked up 36 counts of providing false statements in applications for work passes for foreigners as well as 'phantom workers'.
Phantom workers are Singaporeans fraudulently listed as having been hired so that the employer becomes eligible to employ more foreign workers.
Wong faces another seven charges for recovering the foreign worker levy from the workers.
The person with the second-highest number of charges was Tan Guan Lai, 51, who had to answer to 34 counts of lying to MOM.
Low Ah Moi, 61, faced 28 similar charges.
The fourth man charged was Alfred Sim Kheng Swee, 45. He faced 20 counts of instigating, aiding or conspiring with an accomplice to provide false statements to MOM, and another four of breaching the conditions of the work passes issued to four workers by deploying them to other jobs.
The last man charged was Leong Chee Cheong, 59, who ran up eight counts of providing false statements to MOM.
The cases against the five will come before the court next month. All of them, except Leong, are out on bail of $15,000 each.
Leong, who is in a drug rehabilitation centre, said he had no one to bail him out.
KHUSHWANT SINGH