Jail for man, 3 SMRT ex-staff over cheating scheme with $4m payment

They collaborated to dupe transport provider into awarding work to two firms

- Shaffiq Alkhatib Court Correspondent

A group of SMRT employees and a man who was never employed by the corporation collaborated to dupe the transport provider into paying more than $4 million to two companies.

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

Court documents stated that the pair had secretly used two companies registered under the name of Akbar Ali Tambishahib, 68 - who was Zakaria’s friend at the time — to obtain work from SMRT.

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 - over $3.5 million.

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

Akbar and Zulkifli, who did not initiate the scheme, were each sentenced to two years and two months’ jail on Nov 12.

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.