Now he is undergoing trial for CBT (Criminal Breach of Trust) in courts.
And let's compare the headline of Straits Times and Yahoo News.
CBT trial of ex-STTA president begins; 14 prosecution witnesses expected to testify
Straits Times - The Singapore media is ranked 149th in 2012 Freedom of Press.
Only 30 countries fare worse than us.
Yahoo News......
Trial for ex-PAP MP Choo Wee Khiang begins - Yahoo! News Singapore
I am beginning to love Yahoo News.
Former Member of Parliament Choo Wee Khiang appeared in court Tuesday for the first day of his trial for alleged criminal breach of trust related to his stint as president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA).
Choo is accused of misappropriating $8,400 of the organisation’s funds to pay Luo Jie, a former assistant coach, for coaching students of Fuhua Secondary School.
The former MP for the ruling People’s Action Party also faces three other charges of corruptly using association funds to pay for personal expenses, but the prosecution is proceeding only on the criminal breach of trust charge.
Choo is being tried alongside former national table tennis player Koh Li Ping, who faces one charge of abetting Choo's criminal breach of trust. She was at the time the STTA's high performance manager who processed the $8,400 payment to Luo Jie, at the time an assistant coach for the then-national team players.
In their opening statement, prosecutors said Luo moonlighted as a table tennis coach for Fuhua’s students without informing or seeking approval from the STTA, then his sole employer.
Luo, who held a work permit with the STTA, coached at Fuhua from 2001 to 2003, but when senior management of the school discovered Luo was only authorised to work for the STTA, they decided they could not pay him for his work, prosecutors added.
The prosecution’s case was that sometime in 2005, Choo conspired with Koh to authorise payment of $8,400 to Luo from the amount the table tennis association received from Fuhua for consultancy and coaching services begun in 2004.
“Luo Jie was not entitled to receive this sum of $8,400, as these were STTA funds, and there was no basis for STTA to pay these monies to Luo Jie,” said deputy public prosecutor Alan Loh.
Citing Choo as an agent to the STTA, Loh said Choo was only authorised to approve the expenditure of the association’s funds for its purposes only.
“In clear breach of the trust vested in him by STTA, Choo misappropriated STTA funds by approving their payment to Luo Jie when there was no STTA object in pursuance of which such payment was required,” he stated. “Even if they were sympathetic to Luo Jie, they had no legal justification using STTA funds to compensate him for moonlighting services provided to a third party.”
Two prosecution witnesses took the stand on the opening morning of the trial: former STTA finance administrative manager Tan Bak Hua, as well as current STTA CEO and then-general manager Wong Hui Leng.
Wong confirmed that coaches on work permits or employment passes are not permitted to conduct private or ad-hoc coaching at all, whether or not the STTA’s approval is sought.
She also revealed that in 2000, when she joined the STTA as general manager, the association received about $500,000 in funding from the Singapore Sports Council — public funding that she said formed about 90 per cent of the STTA’s revenue.
Choo served as an MP in Marine Parade GRC from 1988 to 1991, and was subsequently twice re-elected in Jalan Besar GRC from 1991 to 1999, when he resigned from his position and the PAP to plead guilty to cheating.
He was elected STTA president in 1991, and served until 1998 when he resigned. He later reassumed the position in 2002, and stepped down once again in 2008.
He now works as the general manager of Marina Bay Golf Course. Koh is now a real estate agent.
Choo’s and Koh’s joint trial continues through Thursday before a break till mid-March.
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