Man admits to roping in others to open bank accounts that received over $1.3m in scam proceeds

SINGAPORE – A man roped in three others, including his father, to set up four companies, and the bank accounts of three such firms

later received scam proceeds

totalling more than $1.3 million.

On March 21, Timothy Solomon Patrick, 36, pleaded guilty to offences including one count of being part of a conspiracy in dealing with the benefits of a crime.

His father, Patrick Lourdasamy, 64, and the older man’s friend, Kamaraj Gopal Krishnan, 53, each pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with such ill-gotten gains.

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

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua said 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”, also known as “Manny”.

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 and send the consultants the necessary documents, purportedly to support the transactions.

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

Timothy would then take his share – 2 per cent – and pass the remaining funds to people working for Turner in Singapore.

DPP Chua said Timothy recruited Patrick, Kamaraj and Stevenson as “consultants” after the meeting.

Kamaraj opened a firm called Frontier Global Trade & Consultancy and set up a bank account for the firm.

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

Court documents stated that Stevenson opened 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 that the money was dissipated.

The prosecutor added that Patrick initially sensed that something was amiss when Premier started receiving large sums of money.

However, he decided not to take any action, and treated his share of the money as “passive income”.

The court heard that Kamaraj, who did not know what the money Frontier received was meant for, did not ask Timothy or Turner about it.

There was no written contract or documentation setting out the roles or work expected of the consultants.

Meanwhile, 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.”

Among other things, Timothy had stated: “Maybe the time has come to close Freja up before anything else happens. But let me discuss with Manny first... Eventually everyone is gonna want back their money. This is called bubble bursting.”

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 that Timothy and Stevenson then conspired to submit fictitious documents, including a bogus payment voucher, to deceive the bank.

Timothy, Patrick and Kamaraj will be sentenced on March 26.