SG is financial loss/fraud/scam hub. Huat ah!

[k1976]

#1

At least 70 police reports filed against Singaporean-run crypto trading platform Torque

Torque is run by Singaporean businessman Bernard Ong.
PHOTOS: TORQUESUPERWALLET.ASIA, YOUTUBE

Joyce Lim
Senior Correspondent

MAR 24, 2021

SINGAPORE - At least 70 police reports were lodged against online cryptocurrency trading platform Torque, run by Singaporean businessman Bernard Ong, with investors claiming millions lost in cryptocurrencies.

Three days before the Chinese New Year holidays last month, retail investors were told that one of Torque's employees had apparently violated the company's rules and that his unauthorised trading activities had led to significant losses in their trading accounts.

In a letter to investors, Torque Group Holdings, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and owns the cryptocurrency trading platform, told investors that their accounts had been suspended to prevent further losses. Once the investigations were concluded, investors would be able to withdraw their remaining balances and have the option to close their accounts or resume trading on the platform, said Torque's chief executive Bernard Ong.

But Mr Ong subsequently applied to the BVI Courts to wind up the company.

The application was granted last week (Mar 18) and Mr Philip Smith and Mr Jason Kardachi from restructuring and insolvency specialist firm Borrelli Walsh were appointed as joint liquidators.

A preliminary review of Torque's record and investor database by Borrelli Walsh estimated creditor claims at US$325 million (S$436 million) as at March 2 (2021), while crypto assets under the control of the liquidators are valued at about US$9.1 million (S$12 million) as of Mar 14.

Mr Smith told The Straits Times that investigations were still at an early stage and he is unable to confirm yet how many of Torque's more than 14,000 investors from more than 120 countries, reside in Singapore.

Mr Ong, 33, chief executive of Torque, told ST that he has filed a police report in Singapore against the employee who, he alleges, is responsible for the losses. He said that the employee is not based in Singapore and has not been contactable.

Police confirmed reports were lodged by both Mr Ong and investors and said that they are looking into the matter.

Mr Ong said that Torque, which was incorporated in 2019, has about 80 employees based in Vietnam and Singapore, of which 20 are Singaporeans.

"The cost is too high to run a 24-hour operation in Singapore. And the reason why I registered my company in BVI is because it does not have a regulatory framework towards cryptocurrency. I wanted a place that is more friendly towards crypto space," said Mr Ong.

A search on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority portal showed that Mr Ong is the director and shareholder of 12 companies in Singapore.

Mr Ong said: "Borrelli Walsh has taken over (the company). I am no longer in power of the company. I know that investors are frustrated and angry. As a company, we are doing all we can to help anyone and I am ready to cooperate with any authority."

In an email to ST, Mr Ong's lawyer Sarbrinder Singh of Sanders Law said the purpose of engaging Borrelli Walsh was "to trace and locate the misappropriated funds" by the employee in question, "so that the losses to Torque would be minimised".

Mr Singh added that Mr Ong has been harassed by debt collectors demanding payments for which he is not liable. He is also aware of a potential class action against Mr Ong by a group of investors.

One investor, who has 350 accounts with Torque said he was attracted to Torque's reward scheme which could reward an investor between 0.15 and 0.45 per cent of the amount traded in a day.

The investor who wanted to be known as only Mr Lim, said he opened his first account with Torque in January last year(2020) and invested US$50,000 (S$67,000) in cryptocurrency. In the past one year, he has traded a total of US$350,000 (S$470,000) in cryptocurrency with Torque.

He claimed that at one point he was getting daily rewards of about US$2,000.

The self-employed man, who is in his 30s, said he will wait for the liquidators to conclude their investigations and hoped that he could eventually withdraw his remaining balance of some US$800,000 (S$1.07 million) from his Torque account.

A lot these scams are Tiong or Jiuhu or Ceca masterminds with a lot sinki run legs

 

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Jail for ex-insurance agent who cheated victim of over $543k in fictitious investment scheme​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Dec 09, 2024


SINGAPORE - A former insurance agent who duped a man into transferring more than $543,000 to him over 35 occasions from March 2018 to March 2019 was sentenced to two years and eight months’ jail on Dec 9.

Andrew Tiew Siew Ing, 44, who had managed to convince the victim to take part in an “investment opportunity” that did not exist, pleaded guilty to two cheating charges and an unrelated assault charge on Nov 25.

Four more cheating charges were considered during his sentencing.

Tiew, whose employment with an insurance firm was terminated in May 2018, has since made more than $16,000 in restitution to the 44-year-old victim.

In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Da Zhuan said the scammer was working as a bank relationship manager when he got to know the victim’s mother, who became his customer.

Tiew later joined an insurance firm, and he told the woman’s son in January 2018 about an “investment scheme” linked to insurance policies.

Tiew claimed that he was working with a team at another insurance firm and that the scheme provided “good returns”.


According to him, the scheme involved creating insurance policies using the names of fake clients.

The DPP had told the court in November: “Further details of this scheme were not shared with the victim.

“However, the accused informed the victim that the investment opportunity would provide the victim with returns of between 10 per cent and 40 per cent on the sums invested.

“The victim knew from the accused’s representations that the investment schemes required creating insurance policies with fake credentials. But he nevertheless agreed to participate in the investment scheme, as it guaranteed high returns for him.”

This “investment opportunity” did not exist, and the unsuspecting victim later transferred more than $543,000 in total to Tiew.

In 2019, Tiew cheated the victim of another $30,400.

This time, he claimed that he needed money to process the sale of his properties in Malaysia, and that the funds raised would purportedly be used to repay the victim’s “investment monies”.

But Tiew did not own any properties in Malaysia, and he instead used the ill-gotten gains to gamble at the Marina Bay Sands casino.

Believing the lies, the victim transferred the $30,400 to Tiew over five occasions between April and June 2019.

The victim alerted the police in May 2020.

In an unrelated case, Tiew was working as a delivery rider when he got into a dispute with a 50-year-old man over a parking space in River Valley Road on April 4, 2024.

Tiew punched the older man, who suffered multiple facial fractures and was treated at Singapore General Hospital.

 

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Forum: Sister was sold financial product clearly not suited for her​

Mar 03, 2025

Some financial advisers are making a mockery of the risk profile assessment and selling financial products not suited to buyers.

My sister recently renewed her fixed deposit at a bank. She was persuaded to buy a financial product for investment that was not suited to her conservative characteristics.

I read through her risk profile assessment and was alarmed that she was assessed as a risk-taker when she is clearly not.

She is not an active stock investor or a bond buyer. She does not understand the workings of a bond and does not know the business of US technology stocks. Yet the financial product consists of mainly US technology stocks and bonds.

The financial adviser painted a glorified picture of high returns but was mute on the annual fee payable. When I questioned the adviser later, he informed me that there is an administration fee payable annually.

After the deduction of the annual administration fee, the returns for the financial product are about 2.5 per cent, about the same as a fixed deposit rate.

My sister managed to get out of the investment as it was within the 14-day cooling-off period, but she needed to pay some fees.


I do not understand how financial advisers are still getting away with practices such as not telling their clients that their initial investment amount is not guaranteed.

What’s worse is my sister’s risk profile indicates that she is willing to hold the investment product for another 99 years when she is already in her 60s. This is nonsensical and truly unacceptable.

Foo Sing Kheng

 

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Influencer turned prolific fraudster jailed for over 32 months for cheating, forgery and theft​

Chin Tung Sheng had committed multiple cheating and forgery offences, and also broke into a house.PHOTO: TUNGSHENG.SG/INSTAGRAM
Andrew Wong
Mar 19, 2025

SINGAPORE – As a local influencer, Chin Tung Sheng had more than 334,000 followers on his Instagram account, where he flaunted the high life in branded garbs and posted pictures of himself in fancy cars and at luxury brand events.

But on March 19, Chin’s reality took a sharp turn. Dressed in a plain white prison shirt, the 26-year-old appeared in court via video link, and was sentenced to 32 months and one week in jail.

District Judge Kenneth Chin said it was clear that Chin was a prolific fraudster who committed multiple similar offences over a substantial period of time.

“His forged documents ranged from bank statements, Acra business accounts, and even a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office,” said the judge. “He also created 26 separate e-mails and 27 mobile numbers to further his schemes.”

One such incident involved cheating a food delivery rider of $63 by forging a PayNow receipt on July 21, 2022. No restitution was made.

The judge said the defence’s submission that cheating the rider warranted only a day’s jail is “wholly inadequate”, instead imposing a week’s jail for the offence.

He added that little weight should be given to the fact that Chin had no prior offences, as he had committed multiple offences – some while breaching his 24-month conditional warning imposed on Jan 8, 2021.

In fact, Chin had only stopped offending after the law finally caught up with him, the judge added.

He also disagreed with the defence’s submissions that Chin’s actions were not premeditated, pointing to how Chin had scouted a Sentosa Bungalow several times and even went there at different times of the day, pretending to be interested in renting the house.

Investigations revealed that Chin had broken into the house between November and December 2023 and stolen around $200,000 worth of designer items, including Louis Vuitton trunks and other display ornaments.

No restitution has been made to date.

Between August 2020 and April 2021, Chin created more than 25 different membership accounts to submit forged payment receipts to Ion Orchard to receive membership points.

He exchanged these membership points for shopping vouchers for the mall on at least 96 occasions. In total, more than $76,900 worth of vouchers were handed to Chin.

Separately, in July 2022, Chin booked a stay at Amara Sanctuary Sentosa and deceived the hotel receptionist that he had made full payment of over $13,200 for the stay by using a doctored photo of a PayNow transaction.

In 2020, Chin also forged multiple documents as he wanted to convince potential business partners that he had connections to the Singapore Government and had strong financial backing.

These documents included his bank account balances, which he doctored to show that he had more than $1.8 billion in one, and $16.9 million in another.

He also made use of a letter that was addressed to his previous company from the Prime Minister’s Office and changed its contents to make it seem like it was addressed only to him, thanking him for the efforts in helping Singapore by providing medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

His carefully curated world came crumbling down on March 7, when he pleaded guilty to seven charges, including cheating, theft and forgery.

While delivering his sentence on March 19, the judge said the length of the jail term being imposed was appropriate and cannot be said to be crushing, as Chin had committed multiple offences.

The judge added that he hoped these episodes would serve as a lesson to Chin, who replied that he had learnt his lesson.

On March 16, experts told The Straits Times that social media can sometimes make crime seem aspirational rather than reckless.

Dr Annabelle Chow, principal clinical psychologist at Annabelle Psychology, said social media platforms can act as breeding grounds for those seeking admiration or validation from others.

Social media has also led to a thriving “flex” culture, where influencers “flex” or flaunt their lives to become the source of envy among their community.

Others like Mr Riko Isaac, a criminal lawyer in Singapore, have noticed a worrying trend of more young people getting involved in crime in exchange for fast or easy money.

“Most of these youth seem to feel a need to satisfy a deeper insecurity of not being successful enough unless they are perceived to have a luxurious lifestyle,” he said.