5 Bangladeshis among 6 Hyundai employees charged in Singapore bribery case
Six employees of Hyundai Engineering & Construction were charged in court on June 12 over allegations that they accepted or attempted to obtain bribes concerning unsafe work acts.
The employees, aged between 29 and 53, were charged with various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Criminal Procedure Code.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Shaheen, a 32-year-old Bangladeshi who goes by only one name, was handed 15 charges, the most among the six men.
According to court documents, the Hyundai safety coordinator accepted or attempted to obtain bribes of about $6,200 from other safety coordinators employed by various subcontractors involved in a Labrador Villa Road project.
Shaheen is said to have acted corruptly on multiple occasions between July 2023 and April 2024.
Among other things, he allegedly accepted bribes for not issuing safety administrative charges for unsafe work acts, and for allowing a worker to re-enter the site to work after he was banned for committing an unsafe act at the site.
Hyundai Engineering & Construction is the main contractor behind the Labrador Villa Road project, which features South-east Asia’s largest underground substation to date – the area of four football fields – and a 34-storey commercial tower.
The Labrador substation will serve the electricity needs of nearby Alexandra, Clementi, Keppel, Pasir Panjang and the Science Park district.
The others charged were safety coordinators Biswas Uzzal, 42, Hossain Mithu Mohammad Arif, 33, Uddin Md Mesbah, 34; safety supervisor Biswas Pradip Chandra, 29, and safety manager Siow Hung Wee, 53.
Siow is a Singaporean, while the others are Bangladeshi nationals.
Uzzal, Mithu, Pradip and Uddin are accused of accepting bribes of around $2,700 in total from other safety coordinators between 2023 and 2024.
Siow allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Uzzal to accept bribes of $900 in total from other safety coordinators over four occasions between June 2023 and February 2024.
The bribes were an inducement not to issue safety administrative charges.
On two other occasions, within the same period, Siow is said to have conspired with Mithu to accept bribes of $1,000 in total from safety coordinators.
The bribes were inducement to allow a worker to re-enter the site to work after he was banned for committing an unsafe work act.
Siow is said to have engaged in a conspiracy with Uzzal and Mithu in October 2023 to accept a bribe of $500 from a safety coordinator.
Over three occasions between September and December 2023, Uzzal allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with Pradip to accept a total of $650 in bribes from safety coordinators.
In addition, Uzzal is accused of engaging in a conspiracy with Mithu and Pradip to accept bribes of $700 in total on two occasions in October 2023.
Comments