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SINGAPORE – Eager to receive a package sent by a love interest, a woman embezzled more than $ 1.3 million from two companies to secure the package.
Liew Bee Yee, 43, was jailed for six years on Wednesday (March 10), after pleading guilty to a combined count of criminal breach of trust as a servant between August and October 2019.
At the time of the crimes, he was working as an account manager for McCoy and iConnexion Asia, both of which were related companies involved in the electronics trade.
The companies are currently facing legal action from Western Union after Liew borrowed from his Western Union business accounts and transferred the money to his personal account.
Liew’s attorneys, Genith Lim and Simon Tan, characterized their client as a “simple, naive, and unsophisticated lady” who fell victim to a scam due to her trusting nature.
While Liew was dating, the single woman fell in love with a scammer and was “caught” by him, her lawyers say.
Liew had been employed by McCoy for about a decade and was promoted to account manager in 2015. She was entrusted with the company’s bank account.
In August 2019, Liew befriended a friend known to her as “Benjamin” online and they began chatting on WhatsApp.
Later, Benjamin asked Liew to be his girlfriend, but the woman turned him down, claiming she was attached. Benjamin later claimed that he was a pilot and promised to send him a package from Paris with gifts and money.
Liew initially declined the package, but was curious and allowed the package to be delivered to her office premises.
On August 26, 2019, another person known as “Kian” contacted Liew. Kian told her that he was from a company known as “Open Wings Global Express Service” and that she had a package from Benjamin.
Kian asked him to make the payment because the package was overweight. To do so, Liew withdrew $ 3,600 and deposited the amount into an account provided by Kian. She later learned from him that she would receive a package of cash worth € 370,000 (Singapore $ 592,603).
“Upon learning of this, the defendant felt happy and greedy to receive 370,000 euros in the package,” the prosecution said. Later, Benjamin told the defendant that there were other branded items and jewelry in the package.
On August 27, 2019, Kian told Liew that he had to pay additional sums for “taxes and other expenses” in order for the package to reach Singapore.
While talking to Kian on the phone, Liew thought his voice sounded like Benjamin’s. She confronted Benjamin about this, but was assured that Benjamin and Kian were two different people.
He began siphoning money out of his companies’ bank accounts to pay for what Kian said was “safe” or “storage.”
To avoid detection, she first transferred money to several other intermediate bank accounts, before transferring them to her personal bank account. She included a false purpose in the details of the transactions to mask her true purpose. Then I would withdraw the cash.
Between August 26 and October 9, 2019, Liew misappropriated $ 1,302,900 from McCoy and iConnexion.
While the director of iConnexion was on a trip abroad, he received a call from Western Union requesting a refund of the credit withdrawn by iConnexion.
The director said iConnexion did not borrow money and then contacted Liew to verify the matter. Liew claimed it was a misunderstanding and that he would solve the problem. She believed that the money could be reimbursed to the companies once she received the package.
When the director returned to Singapore on October 1, 2019, he received another call from Western Union and was informed that the money had been transferred to Liew’s personal bank account.
The director confronted Liew the next day and she admitted that she had misappropriated company money for unauthorized purposes.
The director filed a police report on October 14, 2019 after it became clear that Liew could not refund the sums and that he had misappropriated more than he had initially admitted.
For committing criminal breach of trust as a servant, Liew could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.
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