SINGAPORE - A man linked to a case in which bank accounts, including his personal one, received more than $500,000 from scams, was on Wednesday (March 30) sentenced to 27 months' jail.

Mohd Jamail Khan Banakhani Shafi Khan, now 56, received US$49,956 (S$67,633) in his personal bank account.

He also received more than $460,000 in a bank account of a firm in which he was a director and shareholder at the time.

The Singaporean had earlier pleaded guilty to eight charges, including those stating that he had acquired the benefits of criminal conduct.

Khan had claimed that his company received money for a multimillion-dollar property investment.

However, he had no experience or qualifications to conduct property investments or management.

Khan had also claimed that the money - totalling more than $460,000 - was from a foreigner named Chinazaepere Raphael Okoli.

In reality, a Vietnam-based company called Trading Scientific Technological Materials had been tricked into handing over the monies to Khan's firm as a result of spoofed e-mails.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Wei Liang said that Khan - a director and shareholder of Singapore-registered companies Jars Technology, and Jars Investments and Holdings - was previously investigated in 2015 by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for money laundering over cash received from one "John Mark".

Court documents did not state if this 2015 investigation was specifically linked to the Vietnamese firm.

But on June 20, 2016, its director made a police report in Singapore, saying that his firm had been deceived into transferring money to a Jars Technology bank account as payment for laboratory equipment.

Jars Technology had received $140,990.65 on May 23, 2016, and $321,359.83 the following month - the equivalent of what the Vietnamese firm had paid in US dollars.

Khan had consented to receive the cash, and he also knew that "John Mark" was involved in the transactions from the Vietnamese firm.

While being investigated by CAD, Khan forged an investment agreement worth US$3.5 million.

He did it to make it seem that Mr Chinazaepere had signed it and to justify the money he received.

Separately, Khan also received US$49,956 in his personal account in 2017, this time from a company called Nama Holdings.

On May 26 that year, the deputy manager of Bank Mandiri's Singapore branch lodged a police report that it had approved those transfers after receiving spoofed e-mails from Nama Holdings' parent company, Madhucon Granites.

Khan again claimed that the money was for an investment.

Khan withdrew and remitted part of the funds from Nama to one Chibueze Clement Egbukichi in United Arab Emirates.

He also provided CAD with forged documents to justify the transfers but could not give details of the investment, the court heard.

Khan's bail was set at $50,000 on Wednesday and he was ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on May 4 to begin serving his sentence.