Foreign talent's contributions to Singapore

[True Believer]

French national Vu Han Jean-Luc Kha, the CEO of food and beverage firm, The Prive Group hurled vulgarities and assaulted a teenager in an unprovoked attack in a lift. The incident on 22 Nov 2019, mentally scarred the then 13-year-old boy so badly that he was still scared of taking a lift a year later.

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...-hurled-vulgarities-at-boy-in-unprovoked-lift

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jail for woman who helped sister to obtain bank accounts, ATM cards for use in scams​

Despite suspecting that the accounts would likely be used for illicit activities from the onset, Nguyen Lan Dung agreed to the arrangement.ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Andrew Wong
Jun 19, 2025

SINGAPORE – Lured by the promise of money, a woman decided to take up her sister’s offer to obtain bank accounts and cards in exchange for payment.

Despite suspecting that the accounts would likely be used for illicit activities from the onset, Nguyen Lan Dung, 24, agreed to the arrangement.

On June 19, the Vietnamese national was sentenced to 10 months’ jail after pleading guilty to three charges under the Computer Misuse Act, and one under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.


Eleven charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration during the sentencing. Dung was also fined $1,700.

Investigations revealed that after Dung agreed to the arrangement, she reached out to a man to say she knew people who would pay him for control of his bank account. Court documents do not reveal how investigations into Dung and her sister started.

Sometime in March 2024, the man agreed and gave up his bank details and the corresponding physical ATM card.

Dung handed over the card and login details to her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, and was paid $700.

Court documents stated that the man’s bank account and ATM card were later found to be linked to extortion scams, and were used to transact a flow of scam proceeds.

Under the arrangement, Dung would also act as the point of contact for other Vietnamese nationals who were willing to sell their bank accounts.

She would earn between $500 and $700 for each bank account she helped to procure.

Sometime in March 2024, she managed to obtain two different bank accounts from two Vietnamese nationals.

Court documents do not reveal how Dung had managed to contact the two.

Around the same period, Dung, along with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend, arranged to sell 11 bank accounts to unknown persons.

Dung’s sister, Nguyen Huong Giang, remains on the run from Singapore.

 

[True Believer]

I have no sympathy for money mules who transfer illegally acquired money on behalf of scammer. They are essentially middlemen in money laundering schemes, helping criminals disguise the origin of illicit funds from scamming innocent victims, and making it harder for law enforcement to trace the money trail. In order to deter scammers, even their mules have to be imprisoned long enough to send a clear message that the SPF has zero tolerance for such crimes.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Court hands down 19 months’ jail to voyeur who preyed on female landlord, toddler​

Andrew Wong
Dec 30, 2024

SINGAPORE - A long-time tenant has been handed a jail sentence after he abused the trust of his landlord by taking voyeuristic videos of the woman and her child when the girl was between three and four years old.

The Malaysian man was found with videos and screenshots that dated back to 2018. The 74 screenshots were from videos recorded of the landlord.

The 40-year-old was on Dec 30 sentenced to 19 months’ jail after pleading guilty to two voyeurism offences and one for insulting the modesty of a woman.


Two other charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing.

The man cannot be named as there is a gag order to protect the identity of the victims.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lynda Lee said the man had been renting a bedroom in the woman’s Housing Board flat for 10 years when he was caught in the act.

His landlord lived there with her husband and their daughter.

The court heard that on the morning of April 8, the man was in the flat with the woman, 45, when he heard the sound of running water.

When he realised his landlord was in the shower, he sneaked into her room and held his phone beneath the toilet door with the video camera facing upwards.


DPP Lee said the man was so engrossed in the act that he failed to realise the victim was about to walk out.

She found him squatting on the floor with his phone pointed at her.

The man, who was employed as an aerospace machine operator in Singapore, ran back into his bedroom as the woman screamed.

She called her husband – who was at work at the time – and he immediately alerted the police.

Investigations revealed that the man had retained 24 videos and 74 screenshots in 14 devices – four mobile phones, six thumb drives, three memory cards and one memory card reader.

He admitted to taking voyeuristic videos of the woman’s daughter.

The man was found with multiple videos of the young child in various states of undress. He said he pleasured himself to the videos of both the woman and her daughter.

DPP Lee read out in court parts of the victim’s statement, which said the woman is still suffering from the effects of the incident. She is often worried that there is someone outside the toilet, even when she is alone.

The victim said her daughter remains unaware of the incidents.

The man could have been jailed for up to two years, fined and caned for intentionally observing someone doing an intimate or private act without his or her consent.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jail for pair linked to bogus scheme with more than 2,000 S’pore investors, over $13.7m in losses​

Leong Koon Wah (left) and Ng Kuan Chuan at the State Courts in March 2022. They were jailed on Jan 3 over a bogus investment scheme.ST PHOTOS: KELVIN CHNG

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Jan 03, 2025

SINGAPORE - He was the managing director of a firm called Singliworld which lured more than 2,000 investors in Singapore into an “investment scheme” that promised trading returns as high as 13 per cent per month.

But the scheme turned out to be fraudulent and there was a loss of over US$10 million (S$13.7 million) after more than US$21 million was collected from the investors, which also included thousands from other countries.

On Jan 3, Leong Koon Wah, 51, who was Singliworld’s managing director at the time of the offences, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in jail, and ordered to pay a penalty of $3,658,600.

He will spend an additional 18 months behind bars if he fails to fork out the amount.

Leong was also a director at three other firms – Singliworld HK, Triumph Global (Asia), which was incorporated in Hong Kong, and Union Markets, a New Zealand-incorporated company.

As at May 2015, Leong had earned approximately US$3.1 million through multi-level marketing (MLM) despite having invested only a total of US$1,000 himself.

He also held several accounts linked to the scheme in his wife’s name even though she had not made any investments. He earned around US$3.4 million through her accounts.

Ng Kuan Chuan, 38, who was also a director at Triumph Global and Singliworld HK, was sentenced to seven years and six months’ jail after earning some US$300,000.

Ng, who was involved in the management of Union Markets, was also ordered to pay a fine of $300,000 and will spend another six months behind bars in default.

After an 88-day trial, District Judge Soh Tze Bian convicted the two Malaysian men of carrying on Singliworld’s business between March 2014 and May 2015, thereby inducing customers to invest in Singliforex – a scheme where their money would purportedly be used to trade in foreign exchange.

These customers were led to believe that professional traders would conduct the trading on their behalf through “foreign exchange brokerages” – Triumph Global and Union Markets.

However, no such trading had taken place and the scheme was unsustainable.

Judge Soh also convicted the pair of offences involving Triumph Global and Union Markets. The men had carried on the business of foreign exchange trading linked to these two firms even though the companies did not have the necessary licences.

Leong had also pleaded guilty to two other charges involving Singliworld. According to court documents, it had promoted a pyramid-selling scheme between February 2014 and May 2015.

Singliworld had also carried on the business of foreign exchange trading even though it was not licensed to do so.

In his oral grounds of decision in December 2024, Judge Soh said that the Singliforex scheme exhibited multiple hallmarks of fraudulent activity, each of which underscored its deceptive and unsustainable nature with fraudulent features.

He added: “In my view, the scheme preyed on investors’ trust through deliberate misrepresentations, manipulation of outcomes, and unsustainable financial practices.

“By combining the illusion of professional trading, guaranteed profits, and MLM incentives, Leong and Ng as the perpetrators maintained a deceptive front while systematically misappropriating funds, ensuring the eventual collapse of the scheme.”

In earlier proceedings, the prosecution told the court that Leong incorporated Singliworld in December 2012 and was its “directing mind”. He later employed administrating staff from March to May 2015.

Singliword’s only business was promoting to members of the public the Singliforex scheme.

Leong and Singliworld promised prospective investors that a team of “professional traders” would purportedly trade in foreign exchange on behalf of the investors.

Ng was one of the people who had carried out the “trading” even though he was neither qualified nor licensed to do so.

From around March 20, 2014, to April 30, 2015, those who wished to participate in the Singliforex scheme had to open and maintain a forex trading brokerage account with Triumph Global.

From around May 7, 2015, they had to open and maintain such an account with Union Markets.

Deputy public prosecutors Nicholas Tan, Michelle Tay and Suriya Prakash stated in court documents that Singliforex investors were not allowed to have the “trading” done via a forex brokerage of their choice.

Investors were also locked out of their accounts at Triumph Global and Union Markets, and could not do any trading on their own.

At the time of the offences, Singliworld did not hold a capital markets services licence issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for leveraged foreign exchange trading.

Despite this, Singliworld held itself out as carrying on such a business between March 2014 and May 2015.

Leong had also devised a set of financial incentives so that Singliforex would be an MLM scheme, with incentives designed to encourage investors to refer and recruit others to participate in the scheme.

The prosecution said that Leong structured the Singliforex scheme to be pyramidal in nature, and placed himself at the apex of the pyramid.

On Jan 3, Leong and Ng were each offered bail of $300,000. Leong is expected to begin serving his sentence on Jan 31, while Ng intends to appeal against his conviction and sentence.

 

[True Believer]

There must be zero tolerance for conmen like Leong Koon Wah and Ng Kuan Chuan, who destroy the lives of honest working people by stealing their life savings. Their jail sentences appear to be far too lenient.