Student agent fined $72K over forged certs obtained from China
Posted on 23 December 2013
A man was fined a total of $72,000 on Monday on nine charges of conspiring with others to forge documents in China.
Student agent Wang Hongtian, 28, a Singapore permanent resident, admitted to abetment by conspiracy to forge documents in China with co-accused Xu Changqing, 29, Xu Rui, 26, and others unknown in China, reports The Straits Times.
Eighteen other charges were considered during his sentencing.
A district court heard he was arrested on Jan 13 this year. Twenty-seven hardcopy forged documents were seized from him such as certificates purportedly issued by Murdoch University and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
His arrest followed student He Lingting's arrest on Jan 10 for selling university certificates and transcripts online. The 21-year-old female Chinese national had implicated her boyfriend, Xu Changqing, Xu Rui and Wang.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vadi PVSS told the court that sometime last year, Wang came to know unknown persons in China on the Internet. He would get forged documents which were fraudulently produced from these unknown persons with the intention of causing it to be believed that they were issued by various local and foreign educational institutions.
He conspired with the two Xus to market forged documents to prospective clients in Singapore. He would pay about $1,000 for each document and would sell it for $1,500 to $2,000. Investigation showed that he sold fake school certificates to more than 10 students and earned about $5,000 to $8,000.
Xu Changqing had been fined a total of $12,000; Xu Rui, $6,000 and He, $5,000.
Wang could have been jailed for up to four years and/or fined on each charge.
