Four men to be charged with cheating, money laundering after victims lose more than $1.6m
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SINGAPORE - Four men will be charged in court on June 26 over their suspected involvement in cheating and money laundering, after victims overseas lost more than $1.6 million.
The police said on June 25 that investigations against three businesses began in February 2020.
The Commercial Affairs Department was informed that the businesses’ bank accounts had received around $1.6 million in fraudulent remittances from people overseas who were victims of an investment fraud between November 2018 and October 2019.
Another business was subsequently found to have received about $64,000 from the same victims in October 2019.
These businesses were sole proprietorships set up in Singapore by three men, aged 39, 53 and 63.
According to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority website, a sole proprietorship is a business that can be owned and controlled by an individual, a company or a limited liability partnership. There are no partners.
Investigations revealed that between 2018 and 2019, the three men were separately introduced to an unidentified individual in Singapore by a 35-year-old man to be part of a consultancy business.
As part of the business, the three men set up their sole proprietorships and opened bank accounts to receive and withdraw money from purported clients, said the police.
The 35-year-old man had allegedly acted as an intermediary, relaying instructions from the unidentified individual to the three men, who would then be able to keep a portion of the money they received, and give the balance to the intermediary.
The 35- and 39-year-old men had also allegedly conspired to cheat the bank by submitting a fake invoice, payment voucher and quotation, when asked by the bank about a withdrawal of $279,740 from the account.
The 35-year-old man who allegedly acted as a middleman will be charged with one count of abetment to commit money laundering, one count of abetment to cheat a bank, and two counts of money laundering.
The three other men will be charged with a total of three counts of money laundering, one count of abetment to commit money laundering, and one count of abetment to cheat a bank.
