Indian jailed in S'pore for duping employer into paying over Rs 31 cr
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 May, 2023 11:22 AM
ingapore, May 26 (IANS) An Indian national has been sentenced in Singapore to 30 months in prison for duping his employer into making payments totalling over SG$5.1 million (Rs 31 crore) to other companies linked to him, a media report said.
Hussain Naina Mohamed, a 47-year-old assistant shipping manager at a construction firm, pleaded guilty on Thursday to nine counts of cheating involving more than SG$$2.5 million and one count of moving a portion of his ill-gotten gains out of Singapore, The Straits Times reported.
During the sentencing, 16 other charges, including those involving the remaining amount, were also considered.
Hussian told investigators that he had sent the money to India to help cover his parents' household expenses.
The payments took place between 2009 and 2019, causing at least SG$500,000 in losses to Utracon Corporation where Hussain worked until January 2019.
Hussain, whose responsibilities included making vendor recommendations to his superiors, also did not inform his employer that he was a partner at a company called Al Rahman Enterprises & Trading (Aret).
Instead, he recommended Aret as well as his father's firm to be his employer's vendor for marine insurance, freight-forwarding services, and plastic components.
The prosecution told the court that Utracon would not have awarded jobs to these firms had it known about the conflict of interest.
The companies recommended by Hussain did provide services to Utracon as its vendors, which resulted in a financial loss of at least SG$500,000 to Utracon as a result of the cheating.
Hussain admitted in the court that he had set up the firm solely to earn some cash from Utracon, and due to his dishonesty, Utracon ended up paying SG$705,000 to Aret.
In addition, Utracon was induced to award jobs to his father's firm, and ended up paying more than SG$1.4 million to it.
In 2011, he entered into an illicit agreement for Indus Global Line (IGL) to submit inflated quotations to Utracon for freight-forwarding services due to which Utracon was cheated of SG$375,000, The Straits Times reported.
On six occasions between May 2014 and November 2017, Hussain amassed SG$142,000 from his ill-gotten gains by methods that included engaging the services of local remittance agents.
While the benefits of the vaccine still outweigh the risks, that assessment is “more finely balanced" among younger people who are less likely to become seriously ill with COVID-19
The two vaccines available since December — Pfizer and Moderna — were 90% effective after two doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. In testing, the vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
It is not clear, however, whether any of the passports under development will be accepted broadly around the world, and the result could be confusion among travellers and disappointment for the travel industry.
As details emerge, many members of the Asian American community see the Georgia killings as a haunting reminder of harassment and assaults that have been occurring from coast to coast.
Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Congo soon followed suit. On Saturday, Norwegian authorities reported that four people under age 50 who had gotten the AstraZeneca vaccine had an unusually low number of blood platelets.
