Jail for syndicate member involved in $2.5m investment scam

A member of a transnational criminal syndicate has been sentenced to jail for 12 years and a month over his involvement in an investment scam that saw victims lose about $2.5 million in total.

Wei Yong, 44, pleaded guilty yesterday to four cheating-related charges and one count of holding a fake Myanmar passport.

Six other cheating-related charges were taken into consideration by District Judge Marvin Bay during sentencing.

The court heard that Wei, a Chinese national, was part of a criminal syndicate based in China. Together with four other syndicate members, he came up with a plot in 2016 to set up and use shell companies for the purpose of cheating high net-worth individuals of their money.

The court heard the group duped 10 people, who all had businesses in China at the time of the scam.

Wei and the other syndicate members falsely represented to the victims that the shell companies operated in financial hubs such as the United States and Singapore, and were able to raise investment funds on behalf of the victims' businesses.

The victims were asked to pay large sums, termed "administrative fees", to the shell companies to facilitate the fund-raising process and cover the costs incurred.

It was understood by the victims that the investment funds raised would be far more substantial than the amount of administrative fees paid, the court heard.

The victims were invited to talks and workshops on topics relating to finance, investment opportunities and business expansion in China, Singapore and the US.

They were also flown to Singapore and invited to a "business office" at the Marina Bay Financial Centre, where negotiations were conducted between syndicate members and the victims.

But the "office" was in fact rooms rented on an ad hoc basis.

The victims were then given contracts purporting to be investment agreements - which had the address of the rented premises printed on the header - to sign.

After the victims signed the contracts and returned to China, the syndicate instructed them to remit administrative fees to it.

Between 2017 and 2019, the syndicate received about $2.5 million in total from the 10 victims.

The proceeds of the scam were split between the five members, with Wei gambling away most of his share at the Singapore casinos.

The court heard that the group had made no restitution to date.

Wei was arrested at Changi Airport Terminal One on Nov 19, 2019, and found with a fake Myanmar passport.

In sentencing Wei yesterday, District Judge Bay said: "There is a need to deal decisively with syndicate-run scams of this nature."

Wei's jail term has been backdated to Nov 21, 2019, when he was remanded.

Court documents did not mention whether the other four syndicate members have been caught or dealt with.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 22, 2021, with the headline Jail for syndicate member involved in $2.5m investment scam. Subscribe