2 women jailed for money laundering for online con men
Published on Jul 23, 2012
By Khushwant Singh
Two Singaporean women were jailed for laundering the criminal proceeds of con men, who would lie to victims that they wanted to marry them or come here to buy property. In most cases, the men would claim to be detained at Changi airport and asked their victims to transfer money to designated bank accounts to secure their release.
Aisha Ismail, 41, a manicurist, was jailed six months and Siti Nordiah Ahmad, 25, unemployed, was sentenced to four months' jail by a district court on Monday.
In one case, nursing aide Yatanar Kyaw befriended an Adam Jerry through the Internet in February last year. He promised her a gift of a gold chain, a laptop and some cash. In May, a woman claiming to be from 'Changi customs' convinced Ms Kyaw to transfer $1,900 to a POSBank account for the release of the parcel.
When nothing arrived, Ms Kyaw called the 'officer' who asked for another $5,000. In another case, a Henry Clark proposed to Ms Hatijah Latif through the Facebook social networking site. She went to receive him in Changi Airport on Dec 17 but received a call from someone from 'customs and clearance' telling her that he was in custody. Ms Hatijah then transferred $3,500 to a POSBank account to secure his release.
Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.
