{"id":11167,"date":"2025-11-13T11:31:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11167"},"modified":"2025-11-13T11:31:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T03:31:01","slug":"jail-for-man-and-3-smrt-ex-employees-after-it-was-duped-into-paying-over-4m-to-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=11167","title":{"rendered":"Jail for man and 3 SMRT ex-employees after it was duped into paying over $4m to firms"},"content":{"rendered":"


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SINGAPORE \u2013 A group of SMRT employees and a man who was never employed by the corporation collaborated to <\/p>\n

dupe the transport provider into paying more than $4 million to two <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

companies<\/p>\n

<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time of the offences, Jamalludin Jumari, 68, was a manager at SMRT while Zakaria Mohamed Shariff, 67, was an assistant engineer there. <\/p>\n

Court documents stated that the pair had secretly used two companies registered under the name of Akbar Ali Tambishahib, 68 \u2013 who was Zakaria\u2019s friend at the time \u2013 to obtain work from SMRT.<\/p>\n

A third SMRT employee identified as Zulkifli Marwi, 60, then a line manager, later joined the scheme and his charges related to a portion of the amount involved \u2013 over $3.5 million. <\/p>\n

On Nov 12, Jamalludin and Zakaria were each sentenced to four years and nine months\u2019 jail. District Judge Eddy Tham said that Jamalludin had initiated the scheme, while Zakaria played a key role in the offences.<\/p>\n

Akbar and Zulkifli, who did not initiate the scheme, were each sentenced to two years and two months\u2019 jail on Nov 12.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Jamalludin, Zakaria and Zulkifli are no longer working for SMRT.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 Enovation Industries (EI) and Enovation Technologies (ET).<\/p>\n

The prosecutors also said that the pair had decided to use their knowledge to bid for SMRT\u2019s contracts to supply goods and services to the transport provider on the quiet. <\/p>\n

The DPPs told Judge Tham: \u201cKnowing that they would have to declare their interest in (the companies) to SMRT and fearing that they would be excluded from participation in SMRT\u2019s contracts, or worse, that they would be fired, they enlisted (help from Akbar), who had no experience in trains or trackworks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court documents stated that Akbar was registered as the sole director of EI, while two of Jamalludin\u2019s relatives \u2013 his wife and his brother \u2013 were registered as its shareholders. EI was previously known as Princess Building Services and was incorporated in July 1999.<\/p>\n

Akbar was also registered as the sole director and shareholder of ET, which was incorporated in April 2008.<\/p>\n

The DPPs said that three of the men \u2013 \u00a0Jamalludin, Zakaria and Akbar \u2013 had initially worked together to deceive SMRT by concealing Jamalludin and Zakaria\u2019s personal interests in EI.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 beams supporting railway tracks<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

ET then submitted quotations for RFQs to the provision of products and services to SMRT.<\/p>\n

The prosecutors said: \u201cZulkifli 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

During the trial, the offenders had argued that SMRT was not induced by their deception as the two companies had \u201calways (given) the lowest compliant quote\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to this, the prosecution said: \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four men were charged in court in 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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