More jail time for former director
Selina Lum The Straits Times Tuesday, Mar 31, 2015
The sentencing came after the High Court's decision last week to overturn a district court's acquittal of Mark Edward Tjong, 49, an American citizen who is a permanent resident here, on one count of receiving $30,000 in bribes.
The High Court had also dismissed his appeal against his conviction on another count involving about $57,000 and an eight-week jail term for it.
Yesterday, Justice Tay Yong Kwang added four weeks' jail for the overturned charge. But Tjong was released on bail of $80,000 as he is considering whether to take the case to the Court of Appeal on points of law.
If he does not file any application by April 23, he will have to start serving his sentence.
His passport has been impounded.
Justice Tay told Tjong's lawyer Shashi Nathan to inform the United States Embassy not to issue any replacement passport.
Tjong, a former business development director at ST Electronics (Info-Software Systems) (STE), had faced two charges of receiving bribes from Mr Mujibur Rahman, managing director of a Bangladeshi firm.
Following Tjong's recommendation to his superiors, Mr Mujibur was appointed in March 2006 as STE's agent in Bangladesh.
After helping to clinch a contract to supply walkie-talkies to the Bangladeshi police and set up a telecommunications network, Mr Mujibur was paid an agent fee of $185,424.90. He later handed Tjong two blank cheques.
Tjong filled in the amounts - $57,386.67 and $30,000 - and deposited the cheques into the bank account of his then girlfriend, Ms Ho Su Ling, who is now his wife. The funds were later withdrawn.
After a trial, a district court found Tjong guilty of corruption on the larger sum but cleared him of the second charge. He appealed against the conviction while the prosecution appealed against the acquittal.
Last week, Justice Tay deemed that Tjong had received both sums of money as a reward for facilitating the appointment of Mr Mujibur as an STE agent. He found that Tjong did contemplate a reward when he recommended Mr Mujibur to his superiors.
He did not buy Tjong's explanation that the two sums of money were not intended to be a reward for himself but for expenses related to the contracts and to run Mr Mujibur's personal errands.
Yesterday, the prosecution sought a total sentence of five to seven months while Mr Nathan argued for no more than four weeks for the overturned charge.
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