Mandarin Orchard's Ex-food supplier accused of fishy deals

A FORMER food supplier stands accused of 223 counts of bribing 19 chefs from a slew of popular Chinese restaurants and top hotels here so that they would order seafood items from him.

Tay Ee Tiong, 55, formerly from Wealthy Seafood Product and Enterprise in Bedok, has been charged with giving out a total of about $992,000, involving sums of $232 to $24,143, to the chefs as inducements.

This allegedly went on between 2006 and 2009.

He is the first to be brought to court following a probe by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.

None of the chefs who allegedly took these kickbacks has been charged.

The chefs come from restaurants and five-star hotels including Shangri-La, Goodwood Park, Meritus Mandarin and The Regent.