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SINGAPORE: A 58-year-old woman was sentenced to 14 months in jail on Monday (September 14) for her involvement in money laundering offenses, after she helped her boyfriend abroad receive money from victims through your bank account.
Tan Yock Eng pleaded guilty to all four counts.
He was working as a part-time real estate agent when the crimes were committed in 2015 and 2017, and received at least S $ 128,000 through his bank accounts from victims based in Indonesia and Australia.
According to court documents, Tan met her boyfriend, known to her as Dieter, sometime between late 2010 and early 2011 in a New York park. He told her that he was a Swiss national and a civil engineer who traveled frequently for work.
Tan had two bank accounts, one with Maybank and one with CIMB. She provided details of both accounts to Dieter in order to receive money on his behalf, police said.
Dieter instructed Tan to withdraw the money he received through the accounts and transfer the funds to his associates, which she was unaware of.
However, the funds in Tan’s bank accounts were fraudulently obtained from two different victims, police said.
The victims, PT Visindo Anugrahtama from Indonesia and Australia-based Dominant Australia Pty Ltd, had been duped by email phishing scams and transferred a total of S $ 128,650.05 to Tan accounts.
SO HE WENT TO MALAYSIA TO DEPOSIT MONEY
On May 27, 2015, Tan received S $ 47,392.20 into his Maybank account from the Indonesian victim.
Two days later, he withdrew S $ 47,000 in cash and converted it into Malaysian ringgit.
She kept the remaining money to herself, as Dieter told her it was a payment for money he had previously loaned her, court documents said.
Tan traveled to Johor Bahru, Malaysia via Woodlands Checkpoint and deposited the money into an account through an ATM, despite not knowing the account holder.
It also did not state that it was moving more than S $ 20,000 in cash out of Singapore, police said.
About two years later, on April 25, 2017, Tan’s CIMB account received S $ 81,257.85 from the Australian victim.
The next day, following Dieter’s instructions, Tan waited at a bus stop in Bedok, where two men approached her on a motorcycle and handed her a mobile phone.
Recognizing Dieter’s voice on the line, he was instructed to hand over $ 46,000 in cash in an envelope to the men.
The Department of Trade Affairs (CAD) eventually recovered a total of S $ 35,363.56.
LETTER OF ADVICE ISSUED PREVIOUSLY FROM TAN
Prior to these crimes, Tan had been investigated in 2014 for receiving S $ 7,000 derived from fraud in a separate Maybank account, police said.
This happened after Dieter visited Singapore and requested Tan’s account details so that he could pay back the money he had borrowed from him.
According to court documents, Dieter asked Tan to receive S $ 7,000 into his Maybank account and transfer the money to a CIMB account “maintained by his friend in Malaysia” as he wanted to “avoid high bank fees.”
He did so and was later called in for police investigations.
He was issued a notice letter (LOA) notifying him that the funds he received were “derived from fraud perpetrated against victims in Singapore,” court documents said.
Despite that, Tan continued to have dealings with Dieter.
“Tan persisted in fulfilling her role as a money mule even after she was warned not to participate in such activity,” police added.
Anyone convicted of a money laundering offense can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to S $ 500,000.
Those found guilty of moving more than S $ 20,000 in cash into or out of Singapore without a declaration face a jail term of up to three years, a maximum fine of S $ 50,000, or both.
