SINGAPORE - A mother of three, who was already hauled up for questioning by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) in March 2013 for illegally transporting large sums of money out of Singapore, continued to commit other offences until July the following year.
The court was told that Lim Ai Tee moved cash totalling more than $560,000 in four instances across the Causeway between January and February 2013. Then, after she was interviewed by the CAD, she received proceeds of crime totalling nearly $800,000 between February 2013 and July 2014.
Lim, 51,was sentenced on Friday (Nov 16) to three years' jail and fined $8,000.
She pleaded guilty to two money laundering charges involving almost $580,000 and one count of moving more than $85,000 in cash out of Singapore illegally. Five other charges involving the remaining amounts were considered during sentencing.
The court heard that, in mid-2012, Lim got to know a woman known only as Angie after receiving an overseas phone call from the latter.
Lim later agreed to allow her bank accounts to be used to receive monies on Angie's behalf in return for monetary rewards.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Leong Weng Tat said that Lim started receiving "significant sums of money" in her accounts from December 2012. The actual amounts were not stated in court documents.
She then transported the cash out of Singapore to a money mule in Johor Baru in January and February 2013.
DPP Leong said later that year, an authorised bank signatory of a firm received a fraudulent e-mail from somebody pretending to be the company's director, asking him to transfer $150,000 to a bank account.
The signatory did as directed on Nov 20, 2013, and it turned out that the bank account belonged to one of Lim's contacts - a woman known only as Sumathi. The signatory only discovered the fraud after contacting the director.
The court was told that out of the $150,000, Sumathi withdrew $45,000 which she passed to Lim near Kent Ridge MRT station the next day. After that, Lim handed $44,500 to another person, who was not named in court documents, and earned $500 as a reward.
By using a similar method, the managing director of a second company was duped into handing over $533,820 to Lim on April 17, 2014.
She handed over $531,820 to an unnamed third party and earned $2,000. Court documents did not state if police had arrested Angie and Sumathi.
Lim is now out on bail of $15,000 to allow her to settle personal matters. She was ordered to surrender herself at the State Courts on Nov 19 to begin serving her sentence.
