Who are the 3 women linked to ex-SCDF chief Peter Lim? - Yahoo! Singapore (News)

Ex-SCDF chief Peter Lim allegedly had sexual intercourse with Esther Goh, director of business development of NCS in a carpark near Marina Bay Golf Course. (Yahoo! photo)


[UPDATED on 7 June: added details on women alleged to be involved]

The woman most prominently cited in the sex-related corruption charges against a former top civil servant in Singapore held a senior post at a large IT solutions company.

Esther Goh Tok Mui was director of business development at NCS Pte Ltd when she allegedly had sex with former Singapore Civil Defence Force commissioner (SCDF) Peter Lim seven times between April and November last year.

Lim was charged in court on Wednesday morning with 10 counts of corruption by “advancing the business interests” of Goh and two other women for sex, court documents showed.

Goh is believed to be the only single woman out of the three named.

NCS, according to its website, counts among its clients various Singapore ministries and agencies, including the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, the Prime Minister’s office and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

On Wednesday afternoon, a woman answering calls at NCS said Goh no longer worked there.

It’s not clear whether or not Goh was dismissed or if she resigned on her own accord.

The NCS building in Ang Mo Kio, where most of the company's employees work. (Yahoo! photo)

 
A colleague of Goh’s told Yahoo! Singapore that Goh’s employee profile was still on record in the company’s intranet directory at around 1pm on Wednesday, though the page was no longer searchable later that afternoon.

NCS deputy director for marketing and communications Sophia Ong said she was unable to disclose more information about Goh as it is not within the company's policy to "comment on individual employee's [sic] employment".

She did say, however, that the company has a strict code of conduct that spells out the roles and responsibilities of employees when dealing with parties outside of NCS.

"We adopt a zero-tolerance policy against fraud. Employees are to uphold a high standard of personal and corporate integrity," she added.
 
Goh allegedly had sexual trysts with Lim at a carpark near Marina Bay Golf Course, a carpark at Singapore Indoor Stadium, an apartment in Tanjong Rhu and a flat in Clementi.

The carpark opposite Singapore Indoor Stadium, where Lee allegedly had a sexual tryst with Goh. (Yahoo! photo)
 
The other two women named in court documents are Lee Wei Hoon and Pang Chor Mui.
 
Lee, who holds a directorship position at Singapore Radiation Centre (SRC) Pte Ltd, was alleged to have slept with Lim in a hotel in Paris in October, and engaged in oral sex with him in November in a carpark at Big Splash East Coast Park last year.

The New Paper reported that the 40-year-old, who stays in an HDB estate in Teck Whye, is married and has a young son.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, Lee is still employed at SRC but is currently on leave. The receptionist also told the paper that the director has shoulder length hair and is good-looking.
 
SRC provides services that include national disaster management solutions, air treatment and decontamination products, as well as maintenance and repair service support. It currently is not a vendor to the SCDF.
 
The company is a subsidiary of local manufacturing company IPS Group, which distributes engines, generators, security and aviation equipment in Asia and Africa.
 
IPS is placed among the top 50 small and medium enterprises in Singapore, and its offices, including those of SRC, are located in Tuas Tech Park.

Pang Chor Moi, the third woman allegedly involved with Lim was general manager of Nimrod Engineering, a small firm …
 
As for the third woman named in the 10 charges slapped on Lim, Pang Chor Mui, she was named in one charge against Lim for receiving oral sex from her in May 2010 in a carpark at Stadium walk.

Yahoo! Singapore understands that Pang, who is in her late forties, is currently still employed as the general manager of Nimrod Engineering Pte Ltd, a current vendor of the SCDF.

A source close to Pang revealed that she is married and stays with her 17-year-old son and maid in a condominium in Siglap. Her husband often travels overseas for work and seldom returned to the four-room flat.
 
A visit to Nimrod’s office revealed that the company is a small one, consisting of only about 15 employees. Colleagues Yahoo! Singapore spoke to declined to offer comment on Pang, saying they preferred not to speak “to avoid any misunderstanding”.

According to Lianhe Wanbao, Pang had known Lim for a long time, even before she joined Nimrod six, seven years ago.
 
Nimrod’s website states that the firm is a certified company providing security solutions with a diverse range of branded quality products.
 
With additional reporting by Ang Kai Fong

Ex-Singapore official charged with sex-related graft - Yahoo! Singapore (News)

A former top Singapore civil servant was charged in court Wednesday with corruption for allegedly "advancing the business interest" of three women associates in return for sex.

The charge documents obtained by AFP said Peter Lim had sex with the women on separate occasions between May 2010 and November last year in a Paris hotel as well as stadium car parks and golf courses in Singapore, among others.

The three women held senior positions in companies which were providing services to the Singapore Civil Defence Force when Lim was its chief.

If convicted, Lim faces a maximum five-year jail term and a Sg$100,000 ($78,000) fine for each of the 10 graft charges filed against him.

Large-scale graft cases are rare in Singapore, a thriving global financial centre and business hub which enjoys a reputation for being the least corrupt country in Asia.

It pays its civil servants some of the highest government salaries in the world as a deterrent to corruption.

Last year, two senior civil servants were sentenced to 22 years and 15 years in jail, respectively, for their role in one of the worst corruption cases in the country's history.

'Vampire' skeletons discovered in Bulgaria - Yahoo! Singapore (News) Singapore

Melbourne, June 6 (ANI): Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages, which were pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into vampires, the head of the history museum said on Wednesday.

Pagan's believed that people who were considered bad during their lifetimes might turn into vampires after death unless stabbed in the chest with an iron or wooden rod before being buried.

"These two skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century," News.co.au quoted national history museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov as saying after the recent find in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.

The historian explained that the people also believed the rod would also pin the dead into their graves and prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorizing the living.

The practice was common, Dimitrov added, saying that some 100 similar burials already had been found in Bulgaria.

Archaeologist Petar Balabanov, who in 2004 unearthed six nailed-down skeletons at a site near the eastern town of Debelt, said that the pagan rite was also practiced in neighbouring Serbia and other Balkan countries.

Vampire legends are widespread across the Balkans. The most famous of them all is that of Romanian Count Vlad the Impaler, known as Dracula, who staked his war enemies and drank their blood. (ANI)

- Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Self-Reliance"

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion ...

It is harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds ...

S’pore firms planning wage increase this year: survey - Yahoo! Singapore (News)

Singapore employers are said to be planning a 4.5 per cent wage increase this year. (Getty Images)


Employers in Singapore are planning to raise salaries by an average of 4.5 per cent this year to help employees keep up with inflation, according to a survey.

Conducted by human resource consultancy firm Towers Watson, the survey showed that firms in Singapore’s financial services sector plan the highest wage hike of 5.1 per cent.

The pharmaceutical sector and automotive industry followed closely with expected increases of 5 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.

The survey, conducted online between February and March this year and which covered 18 countries in Asia Pacific, also showed that the salary increase in Singapore would be one of the lowest in the region.

On the high side, employers from Vietnam are budgeting to raise wages by 12.2 per cent, while Indian bosses are looking at an 11.5 per cent increase.

Firms in Japan are planning the lowest rise at 2.6 per cent.

Tower Watson’s Global Data Services Practice Leader for Asia Pacific, Rachelle Archebal explained that with the rising cost of living, “[employees] naturally look to receive higher pay from current employers or look for alternative jobs which could offer higher compensation."

However, she advised that although it may be important to keep wages competitive and retain talent, it is also important that compensation levels do not increase to unsustainable levels.

Formula One joins other firms in hitting IPO brakes - Yahoo! Singapore (News)

Formula One commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone speaks on the phone during the Monaco F1 Grand Prix May 25, 2012. REUTERS/Max Rossi

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Motor sport racing company Formula One has delayed its Singapore initial public offer worth up to $3 billion, the fifth big Asian IPO to be postponed or pulled in a week, as weak markets bring the global market for new listings to a shuddering halt.

Worldwide, money raised from stock market flotations has slumped 46 percent so far this year compared with the same period of 2011, with investors wary of the euro zone crisis, China's economic slowdown and last month's botched Facebook IPO.

Formula One, which planned to list in Singapore, has become the latest issuer to hit the brakes, dropping plans to lodge its IPO prospectus with Singapore regulators early next week, sources familiar with the company's decision said on Friday.

But Bernie Ecclestone, the sport's boss and a part-owner of the company, said in an interview with Reuters that Formula One was biding its time, not scrapping the IPO altogether, and that its bankers would continue to meet prospective investors.

"We are getting prepared so all these things are done and then whenever we want to go, we can go," the 81-year-old billionaire said.

On Thursday, London luxury jeweller Graff Diamonds ditched its $1 billion IPO in Hong Kong, Asia's IPO capital, which along with the United States has seen a slump in initial offers. Deal volumes in Hong Kong have dived 85 percent so far in 2012. In the United States, 12 IPOs were pulled or delayed in May.

Facebook has contributed to the chill in the American IPO market. In just 10 trading sessions, shares in the social networking phenomenon have tumbled from an initial price of $38 each to $29.60, offering a stark warning to any company on the fence about entering the public markets.

Excluding Facebook, 72 U.S.-listed companies have filed so far this year, raising proceeds of $13.1 billon, a 53 percent decrease from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data.

"This has created a crisis of confidence," said Scott Sweet, managing partner at IPO Boutique, based in Florida. "The companies still in the pipeline will stay in the pipeline. There is no reason to rush out when the granddaddy of them all has come and gone and left an indelible negative impression."

CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE

This month, both Georgia's state railways monopoly and Russian real estate investor O1 Properties pulled planned London listings, blaming volatile markets as uncertainty over the future of Greece deterred investors from taking the risk of putting money into IPOs and emerging markets.

In the immediate aftermath of Facebook, Corsair Components and Tria Beauty both postponed U.S. offerings. Research firm Renaissance Securities said this month that American IPO filings and pricing were both down sharply this quarter.

"Anything that is out there is going to be subject to a valuation haircut. And the deals that are being postponed (are) at companies that are unwilling to undergo those valuation reductions," said David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.

For now, though, some companies continue to press ahead with offerings in Asia.

On Thursday, Malaysia launched the biggest Asian IPO to hit the road so far this year: a $3 billion offer in Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd, the world's third-largest palm plantation operator. It is preparing for a market debut on June 28.

Felda is not expected to suffer the same fate as Graff. So-called cornerstone investors are taking about two-thirds of the shares, and the Malaysian government is using the sale to deliver a windfall of more the $500 million to tens of thousands of landholders ahead of an expected election.

Also in Malaysia, state investor Khazanah Nasional plans to raise up to $2 billion in an initial offer of shares in IHH Healthcare Bhd, which aims to list in Malaysia and Singapore in July, a source with direct knowledge said.

The biggest IPO still in the Asian pipeline is Chinese state-owned insurer PICC Group, which plans to raise up to $6 billion in a Hong Kong-Shanghai dual listing. IPOs from Chinese state-owned entities could be less sensitive to market volatility because they tend to be supported by funds of other government companies and by China's sovereign wealth fund.

Deals from so-called defensive sectors such as utilities or high-dividend companies should also fare better in the current market, though no IPOs are considered easy sells, bankers said.

Meanwhile, there is a small ray of light in the European IPO tunnel: Spain's Telefonica said on Thursday it would list its German unit, in a move to cut debt and potentially free up capital for dealmaking.

Formula One is also still holding out hope that it can come to market before year-end. "It's going to be this year, we said we would do it this year," Ecclestone said.

Some stock analysts said the so-called IPO window could indeed reopen later in the year - provided China eased monetary policy and Europe found some resolution to its debt crisis.

"Bankers aren't very optimistic for the second half, it's going to be very difficult," said one Hong-Kong based capital markets lawyer.

Homemakers, working-class struggle more with debt payments: study - Yahoo! Singapore (News)

Singapore consumers generally show good credit behaviour, but certain groups more than others have a harder time paying their debts, according to a recent study.

Unveiling a study on how nine consumer groups in Singapore manage their money and credit, DP Credit Bureau said on Tuesday that between a quarter to a third of consumers across nine segments have a high DP-Delphi Score, meaning they pay their debts in full and on time.

“This high percentage across all nine groups indicates that Singaporeans generally are very responsible users of credit,” the Singapore credit bureau said.

However, showing a low score were many consumers from three groups – “Working Class Traditionalists”, “Kopitiam Lifestyles” and “Contemporary Homemakers”. Found to be under greater financial stress, these consumers face a moderate to higher credit risk, said DP Credit Bureau.

The Experian Mosaic S'pore classifies S'poreans into nine groups with their own characteristics, lifestyle and …

Consumers in the “Cautious Community” group showed the best credit behaviour among all nine groups, the study showed.

In the “Affluent Elegance” and “Cosmopolitan Central” groups, about 41 and 34 per cent of households earn monthly incomes of at least S$8,000, respectively. Yet, the two groups have very different demographic profiles and credit behaviour.

The rate of default on unsecured credit products for “Cosmopolitan Central” stands at 2.7 per cent, four times more than the 0.8 per cent default rate of the “Affluent Elegance” group.

The study attributed this to the difference in behaviour of the high-income groups. Consumers who fall under “Cosmopolitan Central” are more likely to buy expensive consumer goods to live the lifestyle to which they aspire. They are also younger, independently ambitious, and more open to taking on credit.

The “Affluent Elegance” group, on the other hand, tends to be more stable in their consumption, having often accumulated their luxury and lifestyle items.

The demographic and geographic segmentation system, or the Experian Mosaic Singapore, classifies 98 per cent of Singapore households into groups which share similar demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, as well sharing the same habits and lifestyle preferences.

Said general manager of DP Credit Bureau Lincoln Teo, “It is now possible to provide greater segmentation and corresponding insight beyond traditional, single dimension variables such as age or gender.”