SINGAPORE: A former managing director of Marine Life Aquaculture submitted fake equipment reimbursement claims to cheat then-Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) into disbursing S$246,400 in funding support.
Tan Chee Boon, 47, was charged on Friday (Oct 14) with cheating and forgery offences.
The money had come from two AVA-administered programmes that provided funding support for farmers in Singapore to buy equipment to increase farm production.
In 2015, Tan received S$35,000 from the Food Fund to reimburse Marine Life Aquaculture for equipment purportedly purchased, said police in a news release on Friday.
He allegedly cheated AVA by dishonestly concealing from it in September and October 2016 that the equipment had not been purchased.
In 2016, Tan allegedly submitted fictitious quotations from a purported overseas company to get approval for funding support of up to S$1.4 million under the Agriculture Productivity Fund.
Under the approved funding support, he allegedly cheated AVA in 2017 into disbursing S$211,400 to reimburse Marine Life Aquaculture for equipment that the company did not buy.
For cheating, Tan could be jailed for up to three years and/or fined.
If convicted of forgery for the purpose of cheating, Tan could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.
The penalty for cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property is a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.