Jail for M'sian who came to S'pore to collect $427k from scam victims

A Malaysian man helped a transnational crime syndicate to collect money from two Singaporean scam victims who were cheated of $501,151 in total.

From this amount, Garald Lim Chuen Wen collected $427,151 from the pair.

The court heard that his sole purpose for coming to Singapore was to collect the money in exchange for a financial reward.

According to Lim, he received around RM10,000 (S$3,000) as “commissions”.

On Nov 18, the 26-year-old man was sentenced to three years and nine months’ jail after he pleaded guilty to three counts of handling the benefits of criminal conduct involving more than $125,000 in total.

Four other charges, including those linked to the remaining amount, were considered during sentencing. Lim has made no restitution.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lee told the court that in 2023, one of Lim’s friends introduced him to a job opportunity with a China-based group known as “OpenPay”.

As part of the job, he had to travel from his Kuala Lumpur home to Singapore and collect money from OpenPay’s clients late at night.

OpenPay’s representatives would directly liaise with the clients and inform him when and where to meet them.

Lim was told to wear a long-sleeved shirt when meeting the clients to convey a “professional image”.

He was also expected to convert the clients’ monies to cryptocurrency stablecoin Tether (USDT).

After that, he had to transfer 99 per cent of the USDT received to OpenPay’s cryptocurrency wallet, allowing the group to have access to the funds outside Singapore.

Lim managed to find a cryptocurrency moneychanger in Singapore and he then received the remaining 1 per cent of the USDT as a reward for his contribution.

The cryptocurrency moneychanger would transfer this sum to Lim’s cryptocurrency wallet, the court heard.

The DPP said: “The accused stated that he believed OpenPay to be in the business of operating unregulated online casinos and gambling websites.

“The accused added that he believed the money he was assisting OpenPay to collect was likely to be from illegal means.”

One of the victims, a 49-year-old woman, was cheated of $363,000.

She told investigators that she had befriended a person known as “Henry An” on March 19, 2024, via instant messaging platform WeChat.

This “Henry An” then told her about an “investment opportunity” for which she had to download an application called GSDNE from the Apple Store.

He also told her that she could fund her GSDNE investment account by either making transfers via PayNow to various bank accounts or by meeting up with a “GSDNE employee” and passing the money to that person.

The woman funded her GSDNE investment account with $70,000 via PayNow, and handed over another $293,000 through the second method.

The “GSDNE employee” turned out to be Lim, stated court documents.

She passed him the $293,000 on four separate occasions in April 2024. Each transaction involved between $50,000 and $100,000.

The woman alerted the police on April 28 but court documents did not disclose what spurred her to do so.

On May 2, Lim travelled from Malaysia to Canberra Link near Sembawang Road to collect money from her. He was arrested later that day.

Meanwhile, the second victim, a 62-year-old woman, who was cheated of $138,151, told investigators that she befriended someone via WeChat in March 2024.

This unknown person also told her about an “investment opportunity” with GSDNE and she agreed to be part of it.

The older woman funded her GSDNE investment account with $4,000 via PayNow. She also passed the remaining $134,151 to Lim over three occasions in April and May, with each transaction involving between $25,000 and $59,151.

She lodged a police report on May 9.

On Nov 18, defence lawyers Josephus Tan and Cory Wong from Invictus Law Corporation pleaded for Lim to be given up to two years and two months’ jail.

They added: “In fact, we stand to be corrected that Garald was the only person arrested for this part of the case and his cooperation all along has thus been key to solving the case.”

The lawyers also stressed that Lim had been cooperative with the authorities.