First person linked to OCBC scams pleads guilty

The first person linked to the OCBC phishing scams involving about $12.8 million has admitted in a district court to offences including money laundering.

Described as a "serial and prolific offender" by the prosecution, Leong Jun Xian had his own agents working under him to source for bank accounts which would be provided to the syndicates involved in the scams.

Leong, who turned 21 today, pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts each of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct and rioting.

He also admitted to a charge under the Organised Crime Act. Ten other charges will be considered during sentencing.

He was one of seven youths charged in February over their alleged involvement in the scams.

The other six are: Brayden Cheng Ming Yan, 19; Jovan Soh Jun Yan, 20; Muhammad Khairuddin Eskandariah, 20; Lim Kai Ze, 21; and two others who cannot be named as they were below 18 when they allegedly committed some offences.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Jason Chua and Lee Wei Liang stated in court documents that between Dec 8 last year and Jan 19 this year, the police received 768 reports from OCBC bank account holders who had fallen prey to phishing scams perpetrated by unknown scammers.

The victims reported that their bank accounts had been compromised and funds were later transferred out without authorisation. The court heard that they suffered losses of about $12.8 million.

According to court documents, Leong and other youths, including Lim, Soh, Khairuddin and Cheng, had worked together as a group to provide money laundering services to various unknown persons believed to be linked to overseas syndicates.

The court heard that these youths did so by sourcing for and providing control of bank accounts to these unknown persons.

Some of these bank accounts were later used to receive and dissipate funds from the OCBC scam victims.

Other accounts were used to receive and dissipate funds from victims of separate scams.

The youths were also instructed by the syndicates to withdraw cash from automated teller machines, the court heard.

The prosecutors said that the youths had received instructions from unknown persons through three different chat groups on messaging platform Telegram.

The chat groups were known as K2, G5 and one identified by an emoji of a Singapore flag.

The youths worked with "William" - also known as "Huang Fei Hong" - in K2, "Huang Da Ge" in G5, and "Terry" in the Singapore flag group, the court heard.

The youths used a fourth Telegram chat group, called "Mobile Legends", to communicate am-ong themselves.

Leong was a member of all four chat groups.

William had promised him a salary of $3,000 a month with an additional $600 to $800 per bank account provided.

The DPPs said that between December last year and this February, the youths provided at least 16 bank accounts to the syndicates in the Telegram chat groups, with Leong providing 12 of them. These 16 bank accounts were then used to receive nearly $600,000 from victims of various scams.

The prosecutors said: "The accused admitted to knowing that the funds entering the accounts which he provided to the syndicates were 'not clean', and had reason to believe that William, Huang Fei Hong, Huang Da Ge and Terry were persons engaged in criminal conduct."

They added that from November last year to this February, Leong and the other youths were members of a locally linked organised crime group.

OCBC said in January that it had made full goodwill payouts to all victims of the scams.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced in early February that it is developing a framework on how losses arising from scams are to be shared among consumers and financial institutions, while also working with the industry on longer-term measures to enhance the security of digital banking.

Separately, Leong also admitted that he was a secret society member who was involved in two rioting incidents.

Yesterday, District Judge Kessler Soh called for reports to assess Leong's suitability for both probation and reformative training.

Offenders given the latter will be detained in a centre and made to follow a strict regimen that includes foot drills and counselling.

Leong is expected to be sentenced in June.