The Chinese media reported that a male PRC, Wang Yongfa, aged 45 yrs old, is charged in Court for overstaying, 22 counts of cheating and 1 count of criminal breach of trust.
According to the 22 counts of cheating charges, Wang was accused of cheating a total sum of $513,000, out of 6 victims. One of the victims, Sng Ai Lian, aged 60 plus, tearfully recounted her encounters with Wang.
She got to know him through work about a year ago. Wang had claimed that he is an owner of a backpacker guesthouse. Over the course of their acquaintance, Wang would approach Mdm Sng repeatedly for money on the pretext of investing into businesses and loans to help him tie over cash flow problems. On each occasion when Wang asked for money from her, he would offer her mineral water or traditional pastry. After consuming the items, she felt like being hypnotized. Within 6 months, Mdm Sng was duped into handing over her life savings of $300,000.
Another male victim was enticed to invest in hotel room projects, and was purportedly swindled a sum of $275,000.
Besides cooking up with hotel room investment, Wang would also use stories of gold investment, ‘burn incense’, backpackers guesthouse investment, personal loans, repayment of debts of his stepparents, and even the excuse of the death of his child to dupe victims of their money.
The amount ranged from $400 to $275,000.
Prior to these scams, Wang was allegedly to have pocketed $43,650 of his employer’s business takings, during his employment from 7 January 2013 till 5 February 2013, as an assistant supervisor at a backpacker guesthouse.
In addition, Wang was found to have overstayed in Singapore after the expiry of his social visit pass, from 14 March 2013 to 13 April 2015, a total of 761 days.
With an ‘open door’ policy of welcoming foreign talents indiscriminately, there is an overwhelming presence of foreign workers in every corner of the country. Thus, it is not surprising that Wang was able to remain in Singapore illegally for more than 2 years without being detected by the authorities. This conducive environment to welcome FTs “at all cost”, may have given him the opportunity to start his swindling adventure around the island, and caused untold miseries and pain to innocent victims.
In a separate media report, 6 fugitives wanted by the Chinese government were purported to have fled to Singapore to escape prosecutions [Link]. One even bought a condominium for his family hiding with him in Singapore, thereby contributing to our economic growth (i.e, through consumption).
These reports have indeed raised concerns – has Singapore already gained a reputation as a ‘safe haven’ for criminals and fraudsters?
What do you think?
http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/05/02/illegal-ft-immigrant-charged-with-22-counts-of-cheating/
