SINGAPORE – An employee of Foot Locker allegedly received more than $12,000 in bribes in exchange for confidential information on limited-edition sneaker releases and discounted shoes.
Xavier Goh Yixuan, 30, an assistant store manager at the sneaker store, is accused of accepting rewards totalling $12,189 on 36 occasions from Meng Fanxuan, 27, and two other individuals between August 2020 and January this year.
On the hunt for the latest sneakers, Meng, a Singapore permanent resident, also allegedly paid $1,500 in bribes to AW Lab sales associate Muhammad Faiz Amy Jasman, 28, on five occasions so that limited-edition releases would be reserved for his purchase.
Goh, Meng and Faiz were charged in court on Thursday (Oct 21) with corruption, said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in a statement.
Court documents stated that Goh allegedly also accepted $2,380 from another briber, Bryan Fong, on seven occasions between Aug 26 and Dec 1 last year for insider information.
Similarly, Faiz is said to have accepted $3,795 from Fong on four occasions between Sept 11 and Oct 8 last year in exchange for reserving limited-edition sneakers for Fong.
Faiz allegedly received a total of $5,295 in bribe money.
The cases of Faiz and Meng have been adjourned to Nov 11. Goh’s case will be heard in court again on Nov 18.
The court documents did not provide further details on Fong’s case.
CPIB said any person who is convicted of corruption can be fined up to $100,000 and jailed for up to five years.
The bureau urged companies to implement procedures in areas like procurement and internal audit to prevent falling victim to corrupt acts of their employees.