Jail for man who roped in his father and 2 others to open bank accounts that received scam proceeds

SINGAPORE – A man who recruited three others, including his father, to open bank accounts that received scam proceeds totalling more than $1.3 million was sentenced to 3½ years’ jail on April 3.

Timothy Solomon Patrick, 36, had

pleaded guilty in March

to offences including one count of being part of a conspiracy in dealing with the benefits of a crime.

His father, Patrick Lourdasamy, 64, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail, while the older man’s friend, Kamaraj Gopal Krishnan, 53, was ordered to spend 12 weeks behind bars.

Patrick and Kamaraj had each pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with ill-gotten gains.

The case involving the fourth man, Daniel Lars Stevenson, 40, who was Timothy’s friend then, is pending. Court documents did not disclose the men’s nationalities.

In earlier proceedings, the court heard that some time in either 2017 or 2018, Timothy went to a Boat Quay pub and met a man who introduced himself as “Harry Turner”.

Turner, who claimed to be living in Cambodia when he was not in Singapore, said he was always on the lookout for people with expertise in areas such as e-commerce to provide “consultancy services” for his clients in the financial services industry.

The two men had another meeting later, as Timothy wanted to find out more about these “consultancy services”.

Timothy was told that the scheme would involve him recruiting others to act as “consultants”, who would set up sole proprietorships and open bank accounts.

Turner said he would arrange for the transfer of funds to the accounts.

The consultants would withdraw the funds, take a 3 per cent cut and pass the remaining amounts to Timothy, who would take his share of 2 per cent.

After that, he would pass the remaining funds to other people working for Turner in Singapore.

Timothy recruited Patrick, Kamaraj and Stevenson as “consultants” after the meeting, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua.

Kamaraj set up a company called Frontier Global Trade & Consultancy and opened its bank account.

Timothy helped Patrick set up Premier International Trade & Consultancy, and the older man opened a bank account for it.

Court documents stated that Stevenson started two companies – Freja Global Trade & Consultancy and Inter-Trade Global Associates – and opened bank accounts linked to them.

In 2019, two Australians in their home country were defrauded in an investment scam and transferred nearly $913,000 to Premier’s bank account over 12 occasions that year.

They also transferred more than $63,000 to Frontier’s bank account and more than $338,000 to one belonging to Inter-Trade. DPP Chua said the money was dissipated soon after.

The prosecutor told the court that Timothy did not know Turner’s true identity and did not take steps to ascertain it.

In April 2019, Timothy and Stevenson received recall requests from a bank linked to Freja’s account, and the two men then discussed their concerns over the matter via WhatsApp.

DPP Chua said: “Timothy was cognisant about the dubious and suspicious nature of their arrangement with Harry, and he knew that the monies that they were earning were too good to be true.”

On July 12, 2019, nearly $280,000 was withdrawn from Inter-Trade’s bank account. The following month, the bank asked Stevenson for documentation to support the transaction.

The prosecutor said Timothy and Stevenson conspired to submit fictitious documents, including a bogus payment voucher, to deceive the bank.

Timothy’s bail was set at $20,000 on April 3, and he is expected to start serving his sentence on April 17.