A 37-year-old man from China has been sentenced to 11 weeks in jail for attempting to bribe police officers in Singapore as part of a calculated plan to remain in the country illegally. Xu Zhishen pleaded guilty to one count of offering a bribe to a public servant, with a second similar charge taken into consideration during his sentencing on Friday, August 29, 2025.
The court proceedings revealed that Xu had initially arrived in Singapore in late March 2025 with the intention of securing employment through two job interviews. After he failed to obtain a job, he subsequently lost approximately ten thousand dollars from gambling at a local casino. In April, he briefly left for Malaysia and re-entered Singapore to renew his social visit pass, still intending to find work and recoup his gambling losses.
It was upon his return that he encountered an individual identified only as A1 in court documents. This individual provided Xu with unlawful advice, suggesting he could earn money by illegally selling sexual enhancement medication in the Geylang area. Furthermore, A1 advised Xu that he could commit a crime to be arrested, which would then allow him to remain in Singapore on a special pass while under investigation, thereby extending his stay to continue his illegal sales activities.
Xu acted on this advice. On April 27, 2025, at approximately 1:00 a.m., police officers approached him on Pagoda Street after a member of the public reported a suspicious person. When the officers requested to see his passport, Xu refused to comply. Instead, he took out $119 in cash and attempted to place the money into the hand of one officer, pleading in Mandarin for the officer to let him off. When the officer pushed the money away, Xu forcefully tried to put the cash into the officer's pocket. He then turned his attention to a second officer and attempted to bribe him as well. Both officers refused the bribes.
Court documents stated that Xu was fully aware that by offering the bribe, he was committing a corruption offense which would lead to his arrest and the issuance of a special pass, thus achieving his goal of extending his stay. After his arrest by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, he contacted a person in China to help him find a local bailor. A Singaporean man, who was a stranger to Xu, was arranged to stand as his bailor for a fee. Once released on bail and holding a special pass, Xu proceeded to sell sexual enhancement medication in Geylang, earning between seventy and eighty dollars for each batch he sold.
He was arrested again in July and has been in remand since. The prosecution highlighted that Xu's actions were persistent and brazen and that he exploited Singapore's immigration and justice systems. They noted that between January and June 2025, four other Chinese nationals were arrested for similar corruption offenses linked to the illegal sale of such medication, suggesting a potential syndicate operation.
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