A 47-year-old man will be charged in court on 11 January 2024 for providing payment services without license, and possessing money believed to be benefits of criminal conduct. The total sum of criminal proceeds amounted to approximately $500,000.
In May 2023, the Police received reports of an internet love scam where monies were transferred to a bank account belonging to the 47-year-old man. Investigations revealed that the man was allegedly operating multiple bank accounts under his name, which received funds from dubious sources. Upon receiving the funds, he purportedly converted the money to cryptocurrency and transferred it to overseas digital wallets. Further investigations also uncovered that earlier in March 2023, the man was believed to have acted as an agent to collect cash of $50,000 from another victim of a scam near her workplace. The man committed those acts on the instructions of a female friend that he knew from an online dating application.
The man will be charged in court on 11 January 2024 with providing payment services without a license, and possessing money believed to be benefits of criminal conduct under Section 5 of the Payment Services Act 2019 and Section 54 of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992, respectively. The offence of carrying on a business to provide any type of payment service in Singapore without a licence under Section 5 of the Payment Services Act 2019 carries a fine of up to $125,000, an imprisonment term of up to three years, or both. The offence of possessing benefits from criminal conducts under Section 54 of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 carries a fine of up to $500,000, an imprisonment term not exceeding 10 years, or both.
The Police would like to caution the public that scammers are recruiting people to receive and transfer stolen money on their behalf. Scammers may also cultivate potential money mules through online dating platforms to facilitate the transfer of illegal proceeds. If the money received and transferred is stolen or proceeds of crimes, the bank account holder would be investigated and liable to be charged for involvement in a criminal offence. Members of the public should reject requests to use their bank accounts to receive, transfer or collect money on behalf of another person for bank transfers.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
10 January 2024 @ 9:06 AM