Former Actor Haden Hee Faces 6 Charges Over Alleged $14.4K Government Grant Fraud

Former actor and F&B entrepreneur Haden Hee, 45, who founded Korean food products company Hanguk Kitchen, is facing six charges including fraud and forgery, over an alleged scheme involving $14.4K in government grants.

According to reports, Haden, whom you might remember from dramas like A Jungle Survivor and Your Hand In Mine, allegedly instructed Hanguk Kitchen's then-sales director Chew Chui Shien, 53, to falsify employment documents as part of claims for those grants.

The alleged offences took place between April 2018 and January 2019 and involved grants administered by NTUC's Employment and Employability Institute (e2i). Haden was reportedly Hanguk Kitchen's sole director and shareholder at the time.

The grants were offered under a Workforce Singapore (WSG) professional conversion programme aimed at helping mid-career workers move into new roles. Employers could receive salary support while their employees underwent training.

In its application for the programme, Hanguk Kitchen said it intended to hire a brand manager and a corporate/marketing copywriter.

In 2018, however, the company hired two employees as a sales and marketing manager and a business development manager.

According to prosecutors, Haden and Chui Shien knew the employees did not meet the conditions for the grants as their actual roles were not the roles approved by e2i.

As Hanguk Kitchen was said to be facing cash-flow problems at the time, Haden allegedly decided to go ahead with the grant claims by making it appear that the two employees had been hired for the approved roles.

He is accused of instructing Chui Shien to forge employment contracts and falsify payslips for the two employees, which were later submitted to e2i.

The company subsequently received $14.4K in grants, all of which has since been recovered.

Chui Shien was sentenced to five months' jail in February this year after pleading guilty to two charges — cheating involving $8.4K and forgery. She began serving her sentence in March.

The case came to light after the Auditor-General's Office audited WSG's professional conversion programmes and found irregularities in documents submitted by Hanguk Kitchen.

WSG lodged a police report in May 2020, and Haden and Chui Shien were charged in 2024.

Haden is currently out on $30K bail. His case will be mentioned again on Oct 5.

Besides Hanguk Kitchen, Haden, the younger brother of former Mediacorp actor Julian Hee, also used to own several now-defunct F&B eateries including Hungry Korean, which he later joined as actress Cassandra See’s business partner.