Supervisor cheated SIA Engineering Company to repair aircraft as external contractor

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A Singapore Airlines ( SIA ) Engineering Company engineer’s bids to maintain and repair the aircraft for his employer as an external contractor were successful.

Leong Siew Pui, 69, made the proposals in the name of Aittix Engineering, an coworker’s business, in which he did not hold any location.

He deceived his firm about the origin of the services rendered by no declaring this agreement to SIA Engineering Company.

Leong admitted guilt on Tuesday ( Jan 28 ) to three counts of lying to the Singaporean flag carrier’s maintenance company, SIA Engineering Company.

When he is sentenced on February 18th, three similar charges may be taken into account.

Gino Hardial Singh, Leong’s attorney, claimed that this was not a common event in which a business is duped because no-one performs the necessary work or performs shoddy work.

He claimed that Leong’s work on the website check body at SIA Engineering Company, which is used to evaluate the performance of aircraft engines, was unconcerned.

In regards to the works Leong performed in 2017, one of which the prosecution filed, the prosecutors also claimed that there was no proof the plays were inoperable.

Leong was accused of doing the crimes “because he thought he knew much,” according to District Judge Eugene Teo.

RETIREMENT PLAN

After he retired, Leong came up with the idea to work as an additional company and offer maintenance and repair services for SIA Engineering Company.

He had observed that outside contractors frequently needed two to three days for servicing inspections while working as an architectural supervisor, but he could never have allowed them due to functional constraints.

Because he was aware of the exact time frame for the maintenance and repair work, he believed he was more qualified than outside companies to do so.

He spoke with Mr. Alex Tan Han Wen, the owner of Aittix, who at the moment offered producing investing companies, around the Taiwanese New Year that season.

Leong inquired if Mr. Tan could use Aittix to submit contracts for an SIA Engineering Company open tender.

Mr. Tan agreed because he felt Aittix would benefit from having reputable clients like the SIA Engineering Company despite not having any prior experience with maintenance projects.

Aittix was chosen to be a vendor of SIA Engineering Company in that year’s open tender. From 2014 to 2017, the business then awarded Aittix a number of contracts.

As a result, Aittix issued SIA Engineering Company a total of 43 invoices over this period.

Leong replaced Aittix with all the invoiced services, with the exception of two invoices for sound absorbing panel repair. He claimed that he had intended to perform these works later.

Investigations were unable to establish whether Leong used secret information to compile the winning bids.

Leong therefore defrauded SIA Engineering Company into paying Aittix S$ 338, 517 across all six charges. &nbsp,

The crimes were found when the police learned about a suspected fraud case in January 2019.

Leong earned a profit of S$ 63, 737 ( US$ 47, 100 ) from the arrangement, which has been surrendered to the police. Additionally, he fully refunded the S$ 38, 984 for the two invoices for non-delivery.

ARGUMENTS ON SENTENCE

Jason Chua, Deputy Public Prosecutor, requested nine to eleven months in jail.

” While there is no evidence that the works done by the accused were defective or unsatisfactory, the accused made wrongful gain in the form of secret profits”, he argued.

Additionally, Mr. Chua noted that Leong’s crimes involved premeditution and occurred over a long period of time.

Defence lawyer Mr Singh asked for five months ‘ imprisonment, pointing to Leong’s remorse in his plea of guilt, and his voluntary disgorgement and restitution of the money.

He claimed that Leong now made money by working as a gaffner and doing odd manual tasks.

Leong had almost 20 years of experience with SIA Engineering Company at the time of the crimes.

Leong said,” Leong does not take any risks or take shortcuts when it comes to inspecting and maintaining aircraft engines,” adding that his client “has never compromised on safety.”

Additionally, according to Mr. Singh, Leong was given the task of overseeing the operation of the engine test cell and only had two full-time employees.

His repeated requests for SIA Engineering Company to hire more staff “fell on deaf ears,” the lawyer said.” He was placed under enormous pressure from his employers.

Leong allegedly hired Aittix to hire more workers in order to circumvent overtime and working conditions.

According to Mr. Singh, he also employed one full-time employee under the direction of Aittix who would be permanently stationed at the test cell to handle the growing demand and workload.

The attorney claimed that Aittix participated in price comparison exercises and offered work for a fair price, and that the completed projects never received audit reports.

The penalty for cheating is a jail term of up to three years, a fine, or both.

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China seeks help crushing 36 major scam gangs

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Visiting Foreign minister says criminals employ more than 100, 000 visitors

PUBLISHED: 28 Jan 2025 at 10: 17

Liu Zhongyi, Chinese assistant minister of public security, left, meets CCIB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Trairong Phiwpan at the CCIB on Monday. (Photo: CCIB)
Liu Zhongyi, Taiwanese associate minister of public safety, left, meets CCIB director Pol Lt Gen Trairong Phiwpan at the CCIB on Monday. ( Photo: CCIB )

A Chinese associate minister of public security is currently in Thailand looking for assistance in halting their activities. There are 36 big Chinese call-scam gangs that employ more than 100 000 callers to mislead their victims of money.

Pol Lt Gen Trairong Phiwpan, the director of the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau, and Liu Zhongyi discussed the details with Liu Zhongyi during their meeting on Monday at the CCIB in Nonthaburi territory.

Mr. Liu is the head of the Chinese group that came to Myanmar to seek assistance from Thai authorities in resolving the issue of Chinese fraud gangs operating in the Myawaddy region, which borders Thailand’s Tak province.

Some Chinese nationals have been deceived by these criminals into entering Myanmar by entering their homes and working in their scheming farms, frequently in brutal conditions.

According to the CCIB, Mr. Liu claimed that there were 36 big Chinese call-scam groups that employed more than 100 000 people to make their pitches to victims during the conference.

Some Chinese had been persuaded to work for the criminals. The Taiwanese associate minister claimed that many of them had been assaulted and some had died.

Mr. Liu even brought up Wang Xing, a Chinese actor who was tricked into traveling to Myanmar to perform a false casting interview, for a reason. Alternatively, a scam gang detained him.

Several people from visiting Thailand because of concerns for their health, according to Mr. Liu, and as a result, the event of Wang Xing had slowed down visitor numbers.

His group demanded that the CCIB apprehend the heads of these scam gangs who lived in Thailand, as well as apprehend about 20 Wang Xing suspects, and give them extradition to China.

The Chinese assistant secretary demanded assistance from the CCIB in locating the Taiwanese victims who are still being held in Myanmar and putting pressure on them to get them released quickly.

He demanded that Thai officials block the channels that con gangs use to conduct their operations and get funding.

His committee also suggested that Thai and Chinese regulators set up a cooperation center to work together on call-scam prevention.

The CCIB responded by suggesting that the two parties exchange information about the scam gangs ‘ human-trafficking activities and that Chinese authorities assist their Thai counterparts in locating and apprehending the gang leaders and preventing the transfer of funds from victims to scammers ‘ accounts.

The two factors were in partnership, the CCIB said. &nbsp,

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How a kabaddi club is changing Indian girls’ lives

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1 minute ago
Anagha Pathak

BBC Marathi

BBC Nine girls from the kabaddi club standing in a V formation with their arms crossed, looking into the camera. Meena is at the front with four girls on each side fanning out behind her. They are wearing brightly coloured sports shirts.BBC

Meena is searching for the time when she can move while her eyes dart from left to right and back suddenly.

She is a participant in Kabaddi, an American contact sports that is currently practiced in more than 50 nations.

A Kabaddi game is played between two teams, each with seven people. Individuals can then hurl themselves into the opposing’s half of the field to mark their opponents and return to their own quarter without being ground-tied.

But for 14-year-old Meena, this is about more than winning positions. The game offers an escape from a restricted, remote living and opens up a world of possibilities.

” It feels diverse when I play”, she says awkwardly, struggling to find the words. ” In that time, I am not the Meena who is bound to laundry, weighed down by pressure and expectations. It’s just me and the player … It feels like I am more powerful than other women who don’t play”.

Meena lives on the fringes of a tiny ethnic community, Kudoshi, about 230km apart from India’s financial capital, Mumbai, where women ‘ life usually revolve around household chores, marriage and children.

But 15 years ago, a group of faculty at the village university decided they wanted to give girls more options.

Head and shoulder shot of Daji Rajguru - he has short dark hair and a moustache. He is wearing a white sports shirt with a dark blue collar and some blue and yellow markings.

” I have a child. I want her to accomplish things in life, live the best career she is, be something”, says one of them, Daji Rajguru. Why didn’t women enjoy Kabaddi and make a career out of it?

So he and his associates, who had played Kabaddi when they were younger, thought it would be great to teach native women how to sing. The pooled their discounts- 5, 000 pounds ($ 60, £50 )- persuaded the class to let them use its premises, and opened what they believe was the state’s second all-girls Kabaddi team.

At the start, only two women, who were children at the university, joined up. Kids were unwilling to let their daughters practice Kabaddi because it required a lot of downtime, he claims. They also expressed concern about the effect it might have on their daughter’s chances of getting married, as standard families would not approve of girls leaving soon.

Daji and his team members went door to door to let kids know their daughters may be protected using Kabaddi in Kabaddi both before and after school. They assured them that they would properly manage the women and never allow them to be swayed by boys.

Action shot of seven girls playing kabaddi. They are wearing purple, green and black sports shirts, shorts and have bare feet. The pitch is bare earth with white lines marked on it.

The professors would get the girls up from their homes and cut them off at first, but as the numbers increased, they were no longer able to do that. Today, there are about 30 women in the league and they estimate that about 300 have trained with them since they began training, including Daji’s individual child. Some begin playing when they are seven years old.

Meena railways for two days before class begins and two hours after the end of the team, like the rest of the team members. She has to leave home at sunrise and doesn’t get up until night.

” I go alone and it’s dark]in the morning ]. I once worried that someone might be able to harm me. My family was no sympathetic then, and are still angry with my decision to become a sportswoman”, she says.

But she is persistent, inspired by team members who have won numerous awards over the years and have since joined status teams or regional leagues. Samreen Burandkar and Siddhi Chalke were two of the first members of the first group of girls to spend about eight years of training at the pub. Then, at the age of 25, they are expert group players and are financially independent.

Their parents were unsatisfied when the women decided to pursue Kabaddi, believing that it would be a phase that may go. Although their families are glad that the ladies are doing well, they are still under a lot of pressure to get married.

Samreen with lots of medals around her neck and a trophy and more medals in the background. She is smiling and wearing a light blue sports shirt.

” No-one in my family earns as much as I do”, says Samreen. I presently reside in a large area and have the freedom to make my own decisions. Coming from my society, it’s hard for women to go after what they want. I am simply here because of Kabaddi”, she says.

Siddhi and Samreen are teammates; their companionship was born out of Kabaddi. They have travelled around India for tournaments, winning awards and tournaments. ” I could only do that because of Kabaddi. Then, I would have been married and ended up at my father’s place washing the dishes”, says Siddhi and they both laugh, apparently relieved that they have escaped this destiny.

In addition, playing sports well in India may help people find employment in the public market. High-achieving athletes are given jobs in American states, guaranteeing an income also after a person’s active wearing times are over.

Some rural girls pursue game with the aim of achieving financial independence through these professions. They may also benefit from greater esteem and identity-building.

” When we started the sports team, no-one gave any value to these women. They were always extra people in their houses, in society”, says Vilas Bendre, a fresh manager at the pub.

” But we realised that when rural girls climb ahead in their lives through sports, their lives change significantly. The way they talk, the way they carry themselves, their lifestyle, everything changes”.

Daji Rajguru in a checked shirt with two large golden trophies in front of him. The trophies are embossed with patterns and are shaped like vases with lids and handles.

Many members of the club have witnessed their confidence grow and have persuaded their families to let them pursue higher education and delay marriage until they are older, even if they haven’t become professional athletes.

The community has become more accepting too, and when they see girls exercising, people don’t frown at them any more.

The coaches provide funding for the club, along with occasional donations and cash prizes that the team receives in competitions. The majority of the girls don’t have to pay any subscription fees because they come from poor, underprivileged families.

The club also provides food like eggs, bananas, and milk, and frequently pays for player injuries treatment at the hospital during the summer, in addition to training during term time.

Over time, parents ‘ fears have been assuaged, but critics sometimes question the coaches ‘ motives. ” People say things indirectly like.’ Why don’t you coach boys?'” says Daji. However, he claims that there are already opportunities for boys and that there is still room for improvement for girls.

” We are not just their coaches”, adds Vilas. ” At times we are their parents, guiding them, disciplining them, helping them make the right choice”.

And Meena knows the potential of this prized opportunity:” I want to be the best raider and become the captain of India’s Kabaddi team”, she says, daring to dream about medals, championships and leaving an ordinary village girl’s life behind.

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China lacks control over provinces expanding distant-water fishing – Asia Times

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Since the late 2010s, China has shown a growing sensitivity to the negative effects of its distant-water fishing ( DWF ) growth, as well as the reputational damage that some international environmental advocates have caused.

DWF describes nations that seafood outside their own borders and expand their range of activities to the financial exclusive areas or high seas of other nations.

Was China’s hyperbolic DWF development always a direct result of Beijing’s great strategy to create what’s known as a “blue economy” and became a maritime power? What are China’s major obstacles to halting this progress, exactly?

In an article published in Marine Policy, I want to examine the pivotal part of Chinese regions in driving this growth and change the state-centric view on China’s rapidly expanding DWF.

Municipal versions

Not all of China’s southern counties are extremely interested in expanding their DWF sector. Between 2010 and 2020, Liaoning, Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian and the China National Agricultural Development Group Co. Ltd. played a significant role in boosting China’s DWF pursuits, as measured by the number of vessels, power and fish get.

These institutions collectively owned 84 percent of China’s DWF vessels as of 2020, and they combined foresaw a complete power of 86.6 % of the total horsepower for all other Chinese DWF vessels. Additionally, their catch made up 87 percent of the total fat and 86.8 % of the total value of China’s DWF find.

Fujian was the state where the highest returns on investment in catch fish were found in Fujian. It didn’t have the most powerful DWF fleet ( Zhejiang did ) or the largest DWF fleet ( Shandong did ). However, it was only next to Shandong in terms of capture value per vessel and full DWF catch volume, which was both second.

Strategic Fujian

Fujian was not immediately selected as a captain province for the development of the marine economy in 2010, but it soon established what is known as a leading small group, led by the provincial governor, to renew.

In 2011, this endeavor was successful, giving Fujian more managerial and budgetary authority to grow its marine economy. To improve coordination and conformity across administrative levels, sub-provincial leading little groups were also established.

When Fujian’s sea business development gained national significance, it rapidly expanded its DWF industry. The municipal authorities urged attempts to” float to the Western Ocean for the next time” in the year 2013. Regional businesses seized this chance to gain help from their provincial counterparts.

Starting in 2014, the provincial government promoted targeted plan incentives across the company’s value chain: vehicle construction, access to angling grounds, business operations and human resources. The development of the Maritime Silk Road was further aided by Fujian’s participation in the developing of the Maritime Silk Road in 2015.

These steps led to a production-focused, extraction-driven DWF progress in Fujian. From 2012 to 2015, the number of Fujian’s DWF arteries and get rose by 78 per cent and 50 per cent, substantially exceeding national goals of 15.5 per share and 18 per cent.

Reining in growth

Since 2016, amid heightened international scrutiny, Beijing started to recentralize and tighten control over China’s DWF fleet. However, this work was slow to come down to the local level. The province’s DWF growth was aided by the Fujian incentive measures, which remained in place until 2018.

Beijing began putting forth concrete centralized policies to halt DWF growth toward the end of the decade. These included a blacklist for vessels and captains involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated ( IUU) fishing, a compliance ranking for DWF companies and revisions to China’s DWF regulations.

Fujian appeared to follow Beijing’s plan to slow down fleet growth, but it made a different move to make it easier to establish a national DWF base on its coast. This type of terraqueous infrastructure seeks to reorganize spaces that connect land and sea. The objective is to shorten the time it takes to sell DWF catch as commodities and increase its commercial value.

Information-gathering challenges

Beijing’s delegation of some administrative and fiscal authority to local governments is crucial to boosting the provinces ‘ economic performance. However, local governments may be motivated by economic interests to pursue policies that lead to exaggerated growth and have unintended foreign policy effects on China.

Fujian’s incentive policies suggest a firm commitment to a DWF growth model focused on enhancing capacities, maximizing outputs and boosting production. These policies don’t take into account potential environmental repercussions beyond its borders.

A performance evaluation report on Fujian’s special subsidy fund for marine economic development praises the shift in Fujianese fishermen from offshore fishing close to its coast to distant-water fishing.

It says there are” social” and “environmental” benefits that include supplying more DWF professionals and easing offshore over-fishing. The report doesn’t mention potential concerns about overcapacity or the ensuing environmental and foreign policy issues.

Measures taken by Beijing during the 13th Five-Year Planning Period in 2017 marked a first step toward recentralizing control and oversight over such provincial activism. Beijing faces a challenging task when monitoring DWF because its environmental effects are not directly borne by Chinese citizens and occur outside of China.

Looking ahead

China’s 2023 White Paper on DWF reaffirms efforts to improve information-gathering and monitoring on DWF fleet capacities and operations. These include expanding the national fisheries observer program and creating an inclusive DWF data collection framework.

Beijing says the West is” strongly suppressing and restricting” China’s DWF, but the white paper supports dialogue with international non-governmental organizations regarding sustainable fisheries management and measures against IUU fishing. In other words, it acknowledges the importance of global bottom-up monitoring in resolving Beijing’s perennial issue with obtaining information on DWF.

Since China replaced the DWF fuel subsidy with the international compliance capacity enhancement subsidy in 2021, improving information-gathering and verification regarding any violations of both domestic and international regulations by Chinese DWF vessels has become important.

This new subsidy is in part related to DWF enterprise compliance scores. Each year, these scores are released by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. Any of the 14 DWF-regulated violations leads to lower scores, which in turn reduces the subsidy amount for offending enterprises.

Therefore, prompt and trustworthy information on IUU breaches is necessary to achieve the desired deterrent effect. Beijing should encourage and support its efforts to monitor and maintain the transparency and monitoring efforts of fisheries NGOs, as well as to maintain their ongoing collaboration with regional and international fisheries organizations.

Hang Zhou is a graduate student at Université Laval and an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science.

The Conversation has republished this article under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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If reshoring’s happening, where does the US get the capital goods? – Asia Times

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In a remark that was republished by Asia Times on January 27, Noah Smith asserts that “reshoring US economy is achievable and happening.” His argument is based on flagrant misrepresentation of the facts.

Some of his mistakes depend on cherry-picking the day range – for example, a table that shows cell production up 20 % since 2018. But US battery production is down 20 % from 2014, if one looks at a long-term chart ( below ). That’s certainly a success story. Nevermind that the Federal Reserve index’s peak for manufacturing output in 2007 was 106, which is now only 99.

When the Biden Administration made the announcement about its CHIPS Act subsidies, which Smith describes as a significant advance for British manufacturing, there were shortages of labor and materials when building device processing plants began. An unheard-against production increase resulted in a 37 % increase in the Producer Price Index for new plant construction in a single year. At the same time, the number of vacant construction positions nearly doubled.

Smith is relieved that the US’s solar panels manufacturing capacity reached 27, 000 megawatts in 2024, which indicates that the US is” just way behind China.” How far behind? Smith doesn’t state. I may: China may make 890, 000 megawatts of solar panels – 33 times the US number.

The mistake in Smith’s panegyric to US business is how heavily America depends on imported capital goods, which are used to make other goods.

At only$ 400 billion annually, US imports of capital goods exceed private orders by almost three days. Both figures are deflated to January 2000 using the government’s price index for cover commodities exports and private investment products, both. Both set exclude trucks. Whatever the US is producing, it produces it generally with imported investment products.

Of course, the US imports a lot of electronics, whose prices have fallen by half since 2000, and it exports machinery, whose price has doubled ( the US exports about half as much capital goods as it imports ). It’s hard to get an apples-to-apples evaluation of local cover products purchases and cover products imports. But the developments however are striking: US cover goods exports jumped after Covid, rising by 60 % from 2020 through 2024.

Yes, Taiwan’s TSMC, which built a grow in Arizona, which is staffed primarily by workers and technicians from Taiwan, was able to create more computer chips inland because TSMC couldn’t get enough qualified workers in the country. That’s the kind of achievement that makes failure seemed interesting by comparison.

The reality is that America’s dependency on foreign countries is rapidly increasing. In the last ten years, the entire business output has remained essentially unchanged, while capital goods imports have almost doubled. It will require more to re-shore American industries than to publish economy blogs with hot weather.

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