Woman jailed 43 months for multiple offences involving about $450K
Published on Jan 7, 2015 6:27 PM
By Elena Chong
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SINGAPORE - A woman who abetted her lover to siphon $402,000 from her company to feed his gambling addiction was jailed for 43 months on Wednesday.
Zuo Jing, 31, was a management accountant with sea sand importer Riverton Group in Clementi Loop when she committed multiple offences in which she schemed with Ivan Lim Chin Ping, 30, to cheat, conceal and launder property in 2013 and 2014.
Lim has since been charged, and his case is pending.
Zuo admitted to 12 charges with 16 others taken into consideration.
A district court heard that before this set of offences, she had been in a relationship in 2007 with a chef, Mr Alvin Toh Chi Sian.
They opened a restaurant and held three joint bank accounts in OCBC. But towards the end of the year, they broke up. The restaurant was closed, and both parties took civil action against each other.
Sometime before March 21, 2012, Zuo tried to close the three joint accounts without Mr Toh's knowledge. She wanted to withdraw all the money. But she could not do so without Mr Toh's presence. Toh also refused to close the three accounts.
She then forged his signature on a letter authorising her to close the accounts and induced OCBC to hand over a total of $46,318 to her on March 23 that year.
While on bail for the offence in 2013, she re-offended.
She abetted Lim to siphon money from her employer Riverton and cheat Riverton of 11 cheques amounting to $402,694. The total amount cheated and misappropriated by her for all her charges is $449,012. No restitution had been made to date.
The court backdated Zuo's sentence to Feb 8 last year.
Zuo, who has a two-year-old son with Lim, could have been jailed for up to 10 years for forgery. For abetment of criminal breach of trust, the maximum penalty is 15 years and a fine, and for abetment of cheating, 10 years and a fine.
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