Two Singaporeans and an employment agency were charged in court on Thursday over allegedly making false work pass declarations and collecting kickbacks from migrant workers.
Court documents stated that between December 2024 and August 2025, Zhao Yanxiao, 43, an employee of Wonderful Agency Pte Ltd, allegedly submitted false declarations in 14 work pass applications.
The migrant workers were declared as food processing employees earning monthly salaries of $2,000. Investigators, however, alleged that the workers were instead deployed to massage parlours, beauty salons and spas to carry out non-food processing work, and did not receive the declared salaries.
Hu Yuping, 58, a manager of a massage establishment, was accused of abetting the agency in falsely declaring a migrant worker’s occupation as a food processing worker when the worker was allegedly employed as a masseuse.
Hu also faces a separate charge of allegedly collecting a $500 kickback from a worker as a condition for employment.
Kickbacks are expressly prohibited under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA), as they expose vulnerable workers to financial exploitation and deepen their precarity.
Charges in Detail
Zhao faces 12 charges for false declarations of employment and two charges for false declarations of salary.
Meanwhile, Wonderful Agency Pte Ltd faces 12 charges for false declarations of employment and two charges for false declarations of salary.
Hu faces one charge for abetting false declaration of employment and one charge for collection of kickbacks.
The case highlights The Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) stance against false declarations and exploitative practices that undermine the integrity of Singapore’s work pass framework.
MOM emphasised that all employment agencies and employers must make accurate, complete and truthful declarations in work pass applications.
The ministry said that false declarations compromise the integrity of the system and expose workers to exploitation.
MOM added that it “will not hesitate to take strong enforcement actions against such unlawful acts.”
Members of the public who suspect infringements of the EFMA are urged to report them via MOM’s eService Report an infringement.
All information will be kept strictly confidential.
Penalties
Anyone found guilty of making false declarations about employment or salaries can be fined up to $20,000, jailed for up to two years, or both, for each charge.
Convicted individuals and entities will also be barred from employing foreign workers.
For collection of kickbacks, offenders can be fined up to $30,000, face imprisonment of up to two years, or both, per charge.