Former Singapore actor Haden Hee Lic-Kai is set to face trial over six charges involving alleged fraud and forgery linked to his Korean food business Hanguk Kitchen.
The 45-year-old is accused of instructing the company’s then-sales director, Chew Chui Shien, to falsify employment contracts and payslips so that Hanguk Kitchen could obtain S$14,400 in government grants.
The alleged offences took place between April 2018 and January 2019, when Hee was reportedly the sole director and shareholder of the company.
Alleged scheme involved two employees
The case centres on grants administered by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute, or e2i, under a professional conversion programme designed to help companies retrain and redeploy mid-career workers.
Hanguk Kitchen had applied for salary support after stating that it planned to hire workers for positions including a brand manager and a corporate or marketing copywriter.
However, the company subsequently hired two employees in different roles.
One was employed as a sales and marketing manager, while the other worked as a business development manager.
Prosecutors allege that Hee knew the employees did not meet the requirements for the grants because their actual positions did not correspond with the roles approved under the programme.
Fake contracts and payslips allegedly created
Hee is accused of instructing Chew to prepare employment contracts that falsely represented the two employees as holding the positions approved for the grant.
He allegedly also instructed her to produce four sets of false payslips.
The documents were then allegedly used to support Hanguk Kitchen’s applications for grant payments.
According to court documents, the company eventually received S$6,000 for one employee and S$8,400 for the other, bringing the total amount obtained to S$14,400.
The full amount has since been recovered.
Company was allegedly facing cash-flow problems
The prosecution’s case is that Hanguk Kitchen was experiencing financial difficulties at the time and that Hee decided to proceed with the grant claims despite knowing that the employees did not satisfy the programme’s requirements.
The allegations first came to light after an audit of professional conversion programmes identified irregularities in documents submitted by Hanguk Kitchen.
A police report was subsequently lodged in May 2020.
Hee and Chew were charged in 2024.
Former sales director already jailed
Chew, 53, has already been convicted in connection with the case.
She pleaded guilty to two charges involving cheating and forgery and was sentenced to five months’ jail in February 2026.
She began serving her sentence in March.
During her court proceedings, prosecutors said Hee and Chew knew that one of the employees did not fulfil the conditions for the salary-support grant.
They alleged that the employee’s actual role did not match the position for which e2i had approved funding and that she had not received the required salary increment after undergoing training.
Despite this, the prosecution said Hee decided to proceed with the grant claim.
Hee is out on S$30,000 bail
Hee was charged in October 2024 and is currently out on S$30,000 bail.
His case is scheduled to be heard in court on Oct. 5, when proceedings over the six charges are expected to begin.
The charges remain allegations unless and until proven in court.
From Mediacorp dramas to F&B businesses
Hee is known to Singapore television audiences for his appearances in several local dramas, including Your Hand in Mine, C.L.I.F. 2, The Dream Makers, World at Your Feet, Fire Up, Legal Eagles and Gifted.
He later moved into business and became involved in the food and beverage industry.
Hanguk Kitchen was a Korean food products wholesaler and commercial food business. Hee has also been associated with other F&B ventures.
He is the younger brother of former actor-model Julian Hee and has also worked as a real estate agent.
What happens next
The upcoming proceedings will determine whether prosecutors can prove that Hee deliberately instructed his former employee to fabricate documents and use them to obtain grants to which the company was not entitled.
Although the S$14,400 has been recovered, the case highlights the potential criminal consequences of submitting false employment records and supporting documents in applications for government-funded programmes.
Hee remains presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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