One faded note the only lead — but that's enough for CPIB to tackle case

How CPIB solves big crimes with small leads to keep graft cases low in S'pore

- David Sun Crime Correspondent and Nadine Chua

All they had to go on was an allegation about corruption in the sneaker industry, sent by an anonymous whistleblower from a burner e-mail account in 2020.

Officers from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) had no way of contacting the sender.

And this was a niche industry CPIB officers knew little of.

Yet, from the single bribery allegation against a shoe reseller, CPIB uncovered an elaborate web of corrupt transactions involving 10 people about when new pairs of limited-edition shoes would be released for sale.

Five givers and five receivers were involved, including a shoe reseller who somehow knew the release timings.

Speaking to The Sunday Times on Aug 18, Mr Lam Seow Kin, assistant director of the financial investigation branch at CPIB, said these releases are known as shoe drops. Their timings are often kept secret to prevent scalpers from snapping up all the stock.

Mr Lam said the e-mail claimed the shoe reseller knew the shoe drop timings.

Mr Lam, who joined CPIB in 2012, said: "The e-mail was just a general allegation that this one guy must be doing something, and was thus able to time all the shoe drops and buy all of them for himself."

Without revealing more information, Mr Lam said he and his team did background checks on this reseller named in the e-mail and scrutinised his lifestyle.