SINGAPORE: After making a companion at a drinking establishment in Jalan Besar, a man consented to a suggestion to start a restaurant in Tai Seng.
But, this “business” eventually became the front of an unlawful money-making scheme- to “hire” international women as performing artistes by getting them work permits, but eventually allowing them to moonlight and charging them monthly fees.
Singaporean Thum Yieong Tong, 62, even roped his ex-wife into a separate program, getting her to behave as chairman for a music company called Funstarter.
Thum was given a 12-month jail term on Thursday ( Aug 22 ) for breaking labor laws and using the work permit scheme.
He was also required to pay a penalty of S$ 24, 050 ( US$ 18, 400 ), which he personally earned across the charges, but he claimed he could n’t afford it and instead would spend another seven weeks in default jail.
Thum admitted guilt on two counts of obtaining work permits for foreigners for non-existing businesses or those that did not employ them under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act ( EFMA ), with additional two other charges being taken into account.
BIRTH OF THE System
While drinking beer along Jalan Besar in first December 2017, Thum and Singaporean Yeo Tiong Lam, 52, met while the pair were drinking alcohol, and the two eventually became drinking partners.
Thum was given the idea to buy a cafe in Tai Seng by Yeo, who he then brought to attend.
Thum called his 20-year-old companion, 55-year-old Singaporean Ronnie Toh Swee Heng to inquire if he wanted to participate in the plan because he was interested in it.
Eventually, Toh agreed to take over as TSP Entertainment’s director, but Thum and Yeo after ceded control of the company.
After Toh agreed to serve as the agency’s producer, Yeo privately informed Thum that they could apply for work permits to allow foreigners to perform in Singapore.
The immigrants would then be able to profit from collecting monthly wages from them while seeking job themselves.
Yeo promised to give Thum the details of the foreigners, and all Thum needed to do was apply online through the Ministry of Manpower’s ( MOM) Work Pass Work Portal, visit the foreigners for medical exams, and assist with processing their work permit cards.
Yeo claimed that Thum would receive S$ 130 for each work permit application he submitted. On top of this, the immigrants would give Thum a total of S$ 1, 800 regular, which would be used to pay for rental of the restaurant’s grounds, and the remaining may be split evenly between Yeo and Thum.
Thum agreed. Both men were aware that TSP had never employ immigrants. Initially, Thum used Toh’s Singpass details to log in to MOM’s portal to make work permit applciations and would ask Toh for the one-time passwords ( OTPs ) required.
To keep himself the trouble of sending the OTP to Thum, Toh afterward gave his SIM cards to Thum.
Between March 2018 and December 2018, Thum submitted an application for job permits for 15 immigrants who, according to their names in court documents, appear to be Thai or Vietnamese people.
He was paid S$ 130 for each program he made for the 15 girls, receiving a full of S$ 1, 950.
He was also paid S$ 1, 800 each month by the immigrants through their agents for the job permits, a full of S$ 66, 600.
He was to use this money to make hire bills for TSP’s grounds- a total of S$ 51, 600 for 12 weeks at S$ 4, 300 per month, but defaulted on about S$ 10, 000 in book.
In total, he made a gain of S$ 14, 450 from obtaining job permits for the immigrants at TSP.
THE KARAOKE BUSINESS
Additionally, Thum obtained Tan Beng Yan, his ex-wife, to serve as the director of his planned singing venture Funstarter.
Tan agreed to serve as the company’s director after he claimed he had encountered problems with using his own name when registering the company.
Between September 2017 and July 2018, Thum obtained job runs for six international girls to “work” at Funstarter as players.
He used his ex-wife’s Singpass information to make the software on MOM’s website, asking her for the OTPs.
For every program Thum made, he was paid S$ 1, 600 by the unusual people through their overseas providers. In overall, he earned S$ 9, 600 for the six immigrants.
The women’s officials therefore assisted in finding jobs so they could support themselves in Singapore.
BUSTED
After the officers conducted checks at a pub called” Mao at Barcode” in Eastern Plaza in September 2018 and June 2019, the crimes were discovered.
The officers located europeans at the team who had work permits for performing jobs at Funstarter and TSP.
The two methods that Thum was involved in were discovered through investigations. Each of the companies at the time permitted Thum a limit to hire eight foreign performers for up to six months at once.
To expel the overall revenue he made, the prosecution requested 11 to 12 months in jail for Thum and a sentence of S$ 24 050. Harrison had previously received a 39-month prison sentence.
The MOM lawyers cited the scale of operations, which corresponds to the negative effects of the crimes and” social maladies” caused, and the difficulty in recognition.
They cited a previous court case that made the case more severe if it involved the development of shell companies, employee abandonment, and worker compensation payouts.
Thum individually applied for the permits and took the workers for medical checks or to MOM to obtain their labor permits, and he had obtained a total of 21 job passes and had a major part in the system.
Thum was unrepresented. He claimed there was nothing more he could add in a written mitigation plea to the judge, which was not read out in court.
However, he said he could not pay the penalty as he was now a salaried worker earning S$ 2, 000 to S$ 3, 000 a month.
He requested and received a deferral of his sentence until September in order to settle his concerns about his car and job.