Jail for man who helped trio involved in criminal hacking-related activities

SINGAPORE - A man was handed a jail sentence on March 10 after he acquired cryptocurrency worth US$772,500 – nearly S$990,000, according to court documents – for helping three foreign hackers who were members of a crime syndicate.

Sun Jiao, 43, was sentenced to two years and eight months’ jail after pleading guilty to 10 charges, including multiple counts of misusing a computer system and one count of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct.

He had also operated a gambling website that targeted South Koreans and illegally gained access to customer accounts on a South Korea-based portal.

In September 2024, Sun and the three hackers were part of a group of men who were arrested after Singapore authorities conducted simultaneous raids at multiple locations islandwide.

Sun, a Chinese national who is also a permanent resident of Greece, had helped the hackers when they encountered technical issues they could not resolve.

The three hackers, who are also Chinese nationals, were earlier engaged by Vanuatu citizen Xu Liangbiao, 38, who had left Singapore a day before local authorities arrested other offenders involved in a $3 billion money laundering case.

Liu Yuqi, Huang Qinzheng and Yan Peijian were each handed a jail sentence in November 2025. They were between 33 and 39 years old at the time.

Xu’s whereabouts are unknown after he left Singapore on Aug 14, 2023. Court documents, however, did not say if he was allegedly involved in the $3 billion money laundering case – Singapore’s biggest money laundering case – in which 10 other foreigners were arrested.

They were later convicted and deported after serving their sentences.

For the current case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheah Wenjie said Sun knew the three hackers when they were still in China.

Between May 2023 and September 2024, Yan, Huang, Liu, and Xu were members of an organised criminal group based in Singapore linked to hacking-related activities.

While working for the syndicate, the three hackers regularly consulted Sun and sought his help, the court heard.

On Sept 5, 2024, Xu transferred three million USDT cryptocurrency to Liu as payment for their work in the syndicate.

The three hackers then agreed to split the bulk of the cryptocurrency among themselves, and give Sun an equal fourth share to recognise the help that he had given them.

Separately, the court heard that Sun had registered a company in Singapore called Xunshan, and was its sole shareholder and director.

However, the company did not operate any business, and had no revenue.

Around February to May 2024, Sun and other unnamed individuals based overseas began operating a gambling website that targeted South Koreans.

Sun earned about US$30,000 to US$70,000 worth of cryptocurrency a month from operating this gambling website.

In July that year, he engaged an overseas friend, identified as Li Fengchu, 41, to hack other websites and obtain their users’ personal information.

Sun later told investigations that he had paid Li at least 10,000 USDT in total.

In August 2024, Sun sent Li a message, asking him about a matter involving a move to gain unauthorised access into a South Korea-based website.

The portal was the official website for an internet data centre (IDC) that was a server-hosting provider in Asia.

Sun and Li later gained access to 3,000 customer accounts of the IDC.

When Sun was arrested in 2024, the police seized from him cryptocurrency worth around US$850,000, and multiple electronic devices including an iPhone, DPP Cheah said.