THE former chief executive officer of Linair Technologies was charged on Wednesday with seven counts of bribing an executive of American company, Honeywell, with more than $247,000 in 2003 and 2004.

Tommy Oh Boon Hua, 39, also faces two counts of conspiring to cheat Honeywell into paying $133,426 for equipment which were never delivered.

Mr Gary Low of Drew & Napier said that he had just been engaged by Oh and requested for time to take instructions.

Oh, who was freed on $150,000 bail, will return to court on May 16.

In the meantime, he will be allowed to visit China.

Oh resigned early last year as director of the listed company's North Asia operations. He stepped down as chief executive in June 2005.

According to the charges, Oh had given the bribes, amounting to US$156,000 (S$212,222) and S$35,000 between August 2003 and October 2004 to Lim Niann Tsyr, who was then the operations manager of American multinational company Honeywell.

Honeywell was engaged by Biopolis - a biomedical research and development complex in North Buona Vista Road - to take charge of part of the construction work.

Honeywell later engaged its subsidiary, Phoenix Controls, to carry out work on the airflow control system.

Phoenix in turn sub-contracted part of its work to specialist contractors.

Anthony Lim, 34, was regional sales manager of Phoenix Controls in 2003 and Oh allegedly used him to bribe Lim Niann Tsyr to ensure that exhaust systems maker Linair, and another company - Integrated Solutions Engineering - were commissioned to deliver and test a laboratory control system as part of a Biopolis project.

The value of the contract was not stated in the charges.

Lim Niann Tsyr, 40, was jailed for 10 months for corruption and cheating last April. Anthony Lim was jailed for six months in February.

The bribe amounts and the money cheated were forfeited.

For corruption and cheating, Oh could be jailed up to five years and fined up to $100,000.