Indian origin deputy director pleads guilty of cheating Football Association of Singapore
Singapore, Jan 4: An Indian-origin former deputy director at the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) has pleaded guilty to 15 cheating charges involving supplies to the sporting body through a company he owned.
Another 30 similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing Rikram Jit Singh Randhir Singh, 43, who exploited his position to ensure that the sporting body's supply contracts were awarded to companies linked to him or his wife.
The Singaporean admitted on Wednesday to dishonestly inducing FAS to disburse SGD 609,380, from which he and his wife, Asya Kirin Kames, made a profit of SGD 127,896, according to a report by The Straits Times.
Their profits have been seized by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and will be returned to FAS, the court heard.
Rikram joined FAS in December 2010 as a marketing manager and rose through the ranks to become a deputy director in July 2017.
FAS is responsible for developing and advancing football in Singapore and is partially funded by Sport Singapore a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
The accused met Asya, 37, while she was working in the communications department at FAS in 2013.
Leaving FAS in December that year, she set up a company, called All Resources Network (ARN), specialising in event management and the sale of sporting and recreational goods.
Rikram and Asya spoke frequently as ARN regularly organised or supported FAS events. They soon became romantically involved and were married in February 2018.
In February 2016, the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) and the National Council of Problem Gambling (NCPG) agreed for FAS to produce and disseminate clappers, stress balls, scroll banners and football scarves.
Rikram convinced former colleague Pallaniappan Ravindran, 51, not to wind down an unprofitable company, Myriad Sports & Events, so he could use it as a front to quote for supply jobs that he would then pass to ARN.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiagesh Sukumaran said Ravindran agreed to the scheme because of his friendship with Rikram but did not know who the actual supplier would be.
In one instance, Ravindran submitted a quotation for 130,000 clappers valued at SGD 28,600.
FAS requires procurements valued between SGD3,000 and SGD50,000 to have at least three quotations. To fulfil the requirement, Rikram instructed his subordinate to find two other quotations, even though he had already decided to buy the items from Myriad.
DPP Thiagesh said, "(The subordinate) understood this to mean that she was to create fictitious quotations which were higher than Myriad's quotations to justify the approval of supply jobs to Myriad."
On Rikram's recommendation, the FAS management approved Myriad's quotations, disbursing SGD 116,335 to it for clappers, stress balls, scroll banners and football scarves between July 2016 and February 2017.
The funds were handed to the accused, and ARN supplied the items to FAS.
Based on the charges proceeded with, Rikram worked with Asya and Ravindran to dupe FAS into disbursing a further SGD 287,300 to Myriad between October 2017 and October 2018.
In June 2017, MSF once again engaged FAS to produce clappers, stress balls, banners and scarves with NCPG imagery to be distributed at S-League matches.
In October of that year, Asya transferred ownership of ARN to Rikram's friend, Shankar Suppiah, 47. She was planning to marry the accused and did not want FAS to find out about their conflict of interest.
Asya, however, still controlled ARN and would receive 60 per cent of the firm's profits.
Rikram instructed Shankar to submit a quotation, prepared by Asya, for the supply of stress balls worth SGD27,300.
Once again, he instructed his subordinate to find two other quotations. He then recommended ARNs to the FAS management, which approved it.
Rikram worked with Asya and Shankar to dupe FAS into disbursing a further SGD58,100 for the supply of clappers and banners, the court heard.
Their offences came to light when CPIB received information in January 2019 that Rikram had misappropriated money from FAS.
DPP Thiagesh said FAS' independent audit conducted afterwards found it had not paid more than the market rate for the items supplied by ARN.
"As such, FAS did not incur any material loss. All the jobs that Myriad and ARN quoted for were completed," the broadsheet quoted DPP as saying.
Seeking a jail term of 24 to 30 months for Rikram, the DPP said the accused's offences involved a misuse of public funds and were difficult to detect by virtue of his position as deputy director.
Defence lawyer Satwant Singh asked for a shorter jail term of nine to 12 months, saying that his client did not misuse the funds, which fulfilled a purpose.
Shankar was sentenced to four months in jail in November 2022 after pleading guilty to five counts of cheating.
Asya's and Ravindran's cases are pending, according to the Singapore Daily.
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China starts new drills in Taiwan Strait against ‘separatist forces’
Beijing (PTI): China on Monday launched massive military drills in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait as a “punitive and deterrent” action against Taiwan’s separatist forces, days after the US announced a record USD 11.1 billion arms sales to Taipei.
The two drills, in which a host of advanced fighter jets, long-range rockets and naval ships are involved, came amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan that Beijing claims as its territory.
"The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command is employing fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range rocket fires to conduct drills in the waters and airspace in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait on Monday," a Chinese military announcement said.
China has been conducting high-intensity military exercises around Taiwan since 2022, following then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei.
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This is the sixth such drill. These exercises are widely interpreted as rehearsals for military action against the self-governing island which Beijing claims as part of its mainland.
The drills are a punitive and deterrent action against separatist forces who seek “Taiwan independence” through military build-up, and a necessary move to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a media briefing here.
Nothing will deter China from defending national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. Anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response. All attempts to hold back China’s reunification will invariably fail, he said.
Asked whether the drills were in retaliation to the US record arms sales to Taiwan, Lin said, “Anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response”.
Taiwan condemned China's military drills, saying Beijing is using military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries.
In its reaction to the drills Taiwan's Defence Ministry said in a post on X that rapid response exercises were underway, with forces on high alert to defend the island
In a separate statement, the ministry said it had deployed appropriate forces in response, conducting combat readiness drills.
Spokesperson for the Taiwanese president's office, Karen Kuo was quoted as saying that the drills undermined the stability and security of the Taiwan Strait and Indo-Pacific region and openly challenged international law and order.
A PLA statement said the drills focussed on striking mobile ground targets and intended to test the troops' capabilities of precision strikes on key targets.
The drills in which fighters, bombers, long range rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used comes in the backdrop of the US approval of a record USD 11.1 billion arms package to Taipei which China sharply criticised and diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan.
US President Donald Trump approved an arms package worth USD 11.1 billion for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington's largest-ever arms sale to the island.
The arms sale aids Taiwan's independence forces' plans to turn the island into a powder keg, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here on December 18, reacting to Trump's approval to the arms sale.
"China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," he said.
The arms sales to Taiwan comes in the backdrop of rising China-Japan tensions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan that may lead to action from the country's defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China, which demanded Takaichi to retract her statement.
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China has also criticised Japan's move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and airplanes.
The Japanese side kept strengthening targeted military deployment near Taiwan region and even claimed it will deploy mid-range missiles, he said.
This time, it went even further by deploying a radar unit and troops to secretly monitor its neighbour," Guo said.
"Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one's doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas," he said.
