Man admits to managing unlicensed moneylending ‘stalls’ that earned up to $5.2m in profits

SINGAPORE – A man who worked for a transnational crime syndicate managed multiple unlicensed moneylending (UML) “stalls” that earned between $3 million and $5.2 million in profits from August 2005 to June 2019.

On his own, China-based Singaporean Tan Keng Wee earned over $1 million in profits between 2004 and 2019.

In 2014, he bought an executive condominium in Singapore that cost over $1 million and used more than $180,000 of his ill-gotten gains to pay its mortgage between October 2016 and March 2025.

He also used a portion of his criminal proceeds to buy multiple properties in China.

On Jan 14, Tan, 49, who is now in remand, pleaded guilty to five counts of involvement in unlawful moneylending activities and one count of dealing with the benefits of his criminal conduct.

Court documents stated that he was in Singapore when he started working as a “runner” for the syndicate in November 2003, earning $1,000 a month.

A man known only as “Ah Ren” was the group’s financier and was its “tua towkay”, which means “big boss” in Hokkien, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kamen Chiang.

The DPP added that a “towkay” or “boss” was responsible for managing the operations of various “Ah Longs” – unlicensed moneylenders – within his group.

To facilitate the UML business, Ah Longs employed runners who helped disburse loans to debtors and verify their identities.

In March 2004, Tan was promoted to an “assistant Ah Long” position. Six months later, Ah Ren relocated the syndicate from Singapore to Malaysia due to increased enforcement action here.

Tan was later promoted to “Ah Long” and managed a “stall” that had between 80 and 100 debtors.

Ah Ren relocated his operation to Shenzhen, China, in September 2005, and Tan followed him.

Shortly after settling there, Tan and other senior members of the syndicate used a set-up involving Singapore and overseas SIM cards to reduce calling expenses.

The DPP said: “(They) began using two devices, a Voice over Internet Protocol gateway... and another unnamed device, to communicate with UML employees and debtors in Singapore. (They) would not generally use their own mobile numbers to contact runners and debtors in Singapore. They often used ‘space cards’ – SIM cards that were registered to other individuals. This prevented their calls from being traced back to them.”

They would also ask runners to buy such cards from either Malaysia or Singapore, which would then be couriered to the syndicate in China.

In 2009, Ah Ren increased Tan’s salary to $2,000 a month and gave him a 30 per cent profit share linked to the stall to motivate him to bring in more business.

Tan was promoted to a towkay position soon after and started a new stall with capital from Ah Ren.

DPP Chiang said that each stall received repayments and made disbursements through cash and bank transactions. Generally, each stall had its own bank account, the court heard. In some cases, the accounts came from debtors who had defaulted on their loans. Tan would offer to “rent” these accounts for around $300 a month, which would be used to offset their loans.

There were also instances where stalls obtained bank accounts from agents who sold them for between $300 and $500 each.

Generally, Tan recruited runners from a pool of existing debtors who were struggling to repay their loans, paying them up to $1,700 a month.

The DPP said: “The accused used ‘commandos’ to harass debtors who were struggling to pay their debts. On the accused’s instructions, these ‘commandos’ would splash paint... on debtor’s door, paste harassing notes, lock doors with additional locks, destroy furniture and throw eggs at the unit.

“The accused stopped harassing debtors in 2010 as finding ‘commandos’ was difficult.”

By 2019, Tan managed eight UML stalls. Generally, loans were charged at 15 per cent to 20 per cent interest and repayable within four to eight weeks. If a debtor was struggling to pay and needed a longer repayment period, the interest rate could be increased to as much as 40 per cent to 50 per cent on the outstanding amount.

Between 2006 and 2019, 1,529 police reports were made against these eight stalls.

In April 2019, the Chinese authorities arrested Ah Ren, who was sent back to Singapore. Tan stopped his UML activities by June that year.

Realising that he was a wanted man, Tan remained in China but later decided to return to Singapore to surrender in 2025. He arrived in Singapore in March that year and was arrested soon after.

Tan will be sentenced in February.