Jail for man and 3 SMRT ex-employees after it was duped into paying over $4m to firms

The judge said that Akbar had played a relatively minor role in the offences. He had earlier convicted Jamalludin, Zakaria and Akbar of 28 counts of cheating each after a trial, while Zulkifli was convicted of 24 cheating charges.

Jamalludin, Zakaria and Zulkifli are no longer working for SMRT.

Deputy public prosecutors David Koh and Suriya Prakash stated in their submissions that at the time of the offences, Jamalludin and Zakaria controlled two companies – Enovation Industries (EI) and Enovation Technologies (ET).

The prosecutors also said that the pair had decided to use their knowledge to bid for SMRT’s contracts to supply goods and services to the transport provider on the quiet.

The DPPs told Judge Tham: “Knowing that they would have to declare their interest in (the companies) to SMRT and fearing that they would be excluded from participation in SMRT’s contracts, or worse, that they would be fired, they enlisted (help from Akbar), who had no experience in trains or trackworks.”

Court documents stated that Akbar was registered as the sole director of EI, while two of Jamalludin’s relatives – his wife and his brother – were registered as its shareholders. EI was previously known as Princess Building Services and was incorporated in July 1999.

Akbar was also registered as the sole director and shareholder of ET, which was incorporated in April 2008.

The DPPs said that three of the men –  Jamalludin, Zakaria and Akbar – had initially worked together to deceive SMRT by concealing Jamalludin and Zakaria’s personal interests in EI.

The company then responded to requests for quotations (RFQ) for the provision of products and services to SMRT, including the repair of 900 timber sleepers – beams supporting railway tracks

Of the quotations submitted, SMRT awarded three jobs to EI with purchase orders made in 2007 and 2008. The transport provider then made payments totalling more than $87,000.

The DPPs said that the conspiracy later expanded to include Zulkifli, who was able to help his accomplices in accessing confidential information, favouring EI and ET.

ET then submitted quotations for RFQs to the provision of products and services to SMRT.

The prosecutors said: “Zulkifli therefore engaged in the conspiracy to deceive SMRT, as he necessarily had to conceal the interests of Jamalludin and Zakaria as well. He participated in a conspiracy in respect of 23 RFQs and one tender, and only disengaged from the conspiracy after the first tender.”

Of the quotations for RFQs that ET had submitted, SMRT awarded 23 jobs to it over purchase orders made between 2009 and 2011.

Among other things, in October 2011, SMRT issued a letter of award to ET over a tender for the supply of 12,000 timber sleepers. The total value of the tender was more than $3 million, and all four men were involved in this offence, the court heard.

In 2012, SMRT issued a letter of award to ET under a separate tender for the supply of 12,000 timber sleepers. SMRT then paid more than $400,000 to ET, but only Jamalludin, Zakaria and Akbar were involved in this case.

During the trial, the offenders had argued that SMRT was not induced by their deception as the two companies had “always (given) the lowest compliant quote”.

In response to this, the prosecution said: “This ignores the well-established principle that, for inducement to be established, it does not require that the deception be the sole or even operative inducement, so long as it played some part in inducing the victims to deliver the property.”

All four men were charged in court in 2017.