Between 5 January 2022 and 14 July 2023, six men, Muhaamad Fazli Bin Miswan, Tamilselvam S/O Umpigapathi, Prabhu S/O Mahendran, Guru Mani S/O Vengadachalam, Vinod S/O Pergasan and Parminder Singh S/O Amerjeet Singh, aged between 28 and 45 years old, were convicted in separate cases for their involvement in timeshare and wine investment recovery fraud. They were sentenced to imprisonment terms ranging from 7 months to 44 months.
Muhaamad Fazli Bin Miswan, Tamilselvam S/O Umpigapathi and Prabhu S/O Mahendran were convicted of cheating and/or fraudulent trading offences for their involvement in relation to a fraudulent timeshare recovery business through the following companies, Golden Abacus Pte Ltd, Aberdeen SG Pte Ltd, Global Bluestone Pte Ltd and Authorised Management and Repelvy (Singapore HQ) Pte Ltd. Under the guise of operating timeshare recovery businesses through those companies, the accused persons deceived owners of timeshare memberships into believing that they could help the victims terminate their memberships and recover their monies. In return, the victims had to pay fees or taxes to the companies to process the funds recovery. Some of the victims were shown bank drafts purportedly issued by Barclays Bank. The victims’ names were stated as the payee on the bank drafts, and they were told that the amounts stated on the bank drafts would be the amount of payout that they would be receiving. These bank drafts were actually forged using a photo editing application on a mobile phone. Between 2016 and 2019, 33 victims were deceived and paid a total sum of more than $3 million to these companies.
Muhaamad Fazli Bin Miswan, was sentenced on 5 January 2022 to three years’ and three months’ imprisonment. Tamilselvam S/O Umpigapathi and Prabhu S/O Mahendran were sentenced on 12 July 2022 and 22 November 2022 respectively to imprisonment terms of one year and nine months each. Court proceedings against three other accomplices are ongoing.
In two other separate cases, Guru Mani S/O Vengadachalam and Vinod S/O Pergasan cold-called persons who had timeshare memberships/wine investments and deceived them into believing that they were able to help them recover their monies and exit these investments. The two men convinced the victims to pay various fees for insurance coverage and registration, to receive payouts from the agreements. Upon the two men’s requests, the victims made payments into various bank accounts, and the monies were subsequently withdrawn and dissipated by the two men. None of the victims received any payouts andno work was done by the offenders to help the victims recover monies from their timeshare and wine investment agreements. Between 2018 and 2021, five victims were deceived into making payments amounting to more than $500,000. Guru Mani S/O Vengadachalam was sentenced on 1 November 2022 to 22 months’ imprisonment while Vinod S/O Pergasan was sentenced on 30 May 2022 to 44 months’ imprisonment.
In a separate case, Parminder Singh S/O Amerjeet Singh who was working at Interval Resorts Network Pte Ltd cheated the customers into paying fees to upgrade their timeshare memberships. In actual fact, the fees paid by the customers were not used for their membership upgrade and the customers did not receive anything in return. Between 2017 and 2018, five victims were deceived into making payments amounting to a total of $33,500. Parminder Singh S/O Amerjeet Singh was sentenced on 14 July 2023 to 7 months’ imprisonment. Court proceedings against another accomplice are ongoing.
The Police would like to advise members of the public to be vigilant when receiving unsolicited calls from companies or persons purporting to help them recover monies from their timeshare memberships and investments. They should also adopt the following precautions:
- Be wary when someone calls you regarding your timeshare membership or investment.
- Refrain from providing any personal information or information on your timeshare membership or investment to the caller.
- Conduct background checks on the company’s track record before engaging its services.
- Request for a copy of the documentation on their proposals, representations, contracts and agreements. Be wary if the company is reluctant to provide you with such documentation and only provides verbal promises.
- Check with the timeshare developer if the company had dealt with the former in the recovery of timeshare membership fees.
- Exercise extra caution especially if you are asked to make upfront payments with the promise of assisting you to recover your monies from your timeshare memberships and investments.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
14 July 2023 @ 4:50 PM