Tan Chee Boon (“Tan”), aged 47, a former managing director of Marine Life Aquaculture Pte Ltd, was charged in court on 14 October 2022 for cheating and forgery offences.
Tan allegedly cheated the then-Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) [1] to disburse a total of $246,400 from the Food Fund and the Agriculture Productivity Fund to Marine Life Aquaculture Pte Ltd (“Marine Life Aquaculture”) between 2015 and 2017 by submitting fictitious equipment reimbursements claims. Both funds were administered by AVA, and were launched in 2013 and 2014 respectively, to provide funding support for farmers in Singapore to purchase equipment to increase farm production.
In 2015, Marine Life Aquaculture received $35,000 from the Food Fund that Tan applied for to reimburse it for equipment purportedly purchased. Tan allegedly cheated AVA by dishonestly concealing from AVA in September and October 2016 that the equipment had not been purchased. For so doing, Tan has been charged for cheating offences under Section 417 of the Penal Code.
In 2016, Tan allegedly submitted fictitious quotations from a purported overseas company to fraudulently obtain approval for funding support of up to $1.4 million from the Agriculture Productivity Fund for Marine Life Aquaculture. In 2017, under the approved funding support, Tan allegedly cheated the AVA to disburse $211,400 from the Agriculture Productivity Fund to reimburse Marine Life Aquaculture for equipment that the company did not purchase. For so doing, Tan has been charged for forgery and cheating offences under Section 468 and Section 420 of the Penal Code respectively.
If convicted, Tan faces the following punishments:
- For the charges of cheating under Section 417 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and/or fine;
- For the charges of cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property under Section 420 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and a fine; and
- For the charges of forgery for the purpose of cheating under Section 468 of the Penal Code, imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years and a fine.
The Police takes a serious view of any person who engages in fraudulent or dishonest conduct to obtain funding from the government. Offenders will be dealt with severely in accordance with the law.
[1] The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) was formed as a new statutory board under the then-Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources on 1 April 2019. SFA brings together food-related functions carried out by the then-Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, the National Environment Agency and the Health Sciences Authority.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
14 October 2022 @ 10:55 AM