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

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Scammers, hackers stole US$3.3 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in last 12 months​

The amount is about a quarter of the US$20 billion worth of cryptocurrencies stolen over the last 10 years. PHOTO: REUTERS

Dominic Low

Aug 30, 2022

SINGAPORE - Individuals and firms lost about US$3.3 billion ($4.6 billion) worth of cryptocurrencies to scams and cyber attacks over the past 12 months that ended in August, according to an online database.
This accounts for about 15 per cent of the total of US$20 billion worth of cryptocurrencies that hackers and scammers stole over the last 10 years, based on Rekt Database, an online platform which records user reports of cryptocurrency losses.
The largest cryptocurrency heist that took place involved online game Axie Infinity in March this year, when hackers made away with US$625 million worth of cryptocurrencies. The criminals had targeted nodes - computers connected to the blockchain network - which support software that allows players to move funds in and out of the game.
In another high-profile incident, hackers stole US$602 million worth of cryptocurrencies from the Poly Network blockchain in August last year.
In its 6th annual Singapore Cyber Landscape 2021 report released on Monday (Aug 29), the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore said the anonymity afforded by decentralised blockchain networks has made it difficult for regulators to track illicit activity and enforce laws across country borders.
"Furthermore, money trails associated with crypto laundering may appear only long after the incidents have taken place, as cyber criminals sit on stolen cryptocurrency in the hope that they can cash out unnoticed once law enforcement efforts die down," said CSA.

 

[mojito]

Land of schemes and scams. Some say it will be a piece of cake claiming to make 30k a month.

 

[Boliao]

up

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jail for woman who tricked 18 investors into putting in $2.2m in her Ponzi scheme​

Osmond Chia

Aug 30, 2022

SINGAPORE - Lured by the promise of 5 per cent returns, 18 investors put in a total of $2.2 million into what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.
Some had doubled down on their investment after they received repayments on their supposed returns - but these were just done by the perpetrator to create a false sense of security.
They lost up to $300,000 each, as Wan Lai Kuan, 34, never planned to come true on the deals. She instead used the money to fund her cafe business, pay off loans and to settle daily expenses for her mother and then boyfriend.
On Tuesday (Aug 30), Wan was jailed for five years and nine months after she pleaded guilty to six counts of cheating.
Another 12 cheating charges and one charge for running a fund management business without a valid licence were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that in 2014, Wan and two partners Chan Xuan Feng and Ang Shi Yi - set up Skycastle Capital LLP, a business dealing with fund management from forex trading for profit.
Wan's role was to conduct trading for clients, while Chan managed the firm and referred investors to Skycastle, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Wei Liang.

For reasons not mentioned in court, both partners left the firm by June 2015. Chan continued to refer investors to Wan even after he left and was paid for it.
Since 2015, Wan reached out to old acquaintances, pitching an investment opportunity that promised a 5 per cent monthly return on their invested sum.
She received between $3,000 and $720,000 from each investor. In turn, some of them told others about the investment opportunity and referred them to Wan.

To create a false sense of security, she prepared written contracts and made several repayments to the investors to trick them into thinking they were receiving genuine investment returns.
This prompted some of them increase their investments, handing her more funds.
But none of this money came from genuine investment returns, said DPP Lee, adding that Wan never intended to manage the investment portfolios for her clients and had no intention of fulfilling her contracts.
Between March 2017 and October 2018, 10 investors lodged police reports against Skycastle over its failure to pay themtheir investment returns, prompting the police to investigate.
It was found that Wan cheated 18 investors into investing $2,219,000 through the Ponzi scheme. She had also spent the money on personal expenses.
She spent almost $1.2 million on personal expenses, such as to run her cafe, settle loans, and pay for the daily expenses of her mother and former boyfriend Marcus Seah Wei Liang.
Seeking between 70 months and 76 months' jail for Wan, the DPP said she had taken deliberate steps to prolong the scheme and lured investors to hand her more funds by luring them into a false sense of security.
He added that the repayments made cannot be regarded as restitution as they were made to induce more investments.
Chan was not aware of Wan's cheating, but was fined in April this year for illegally carrying on business at Skycastle without a licence, said DPP Lee.
Skycastle has since been renamed as ASDF LLP, to which Wan remains a partner to date, said the DPP.
Those found guilty of cheating can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

5 years' jail for man behind 'largest e-commerce fraud by an individual' in Singapore​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Aug 31, 2022

SINGAPORE - A serial conman cheated 396 victims on online marketplace Carousell over 18 months, resulting in losses totalling $108,693.
The prosecution said Caine Poh Zhenlong's case involved the largest scale of e-commerce fraud committed by an individual to date in Singapore.
On Wednesday (Aug 31), Poh was sentenced to five years' jail and a fine of $17,000 after he pleaded guilty to two counts of cheating involving more than $87,000 and five charges involving unlawful gambling activities.
Another nine charges, including one count of cheating involving some $21,000, were considered during sentencing.
Poh will spend an additional 10 weeks behind bars if he is unable to pay the fine.
The court heard that Poh came across news articles in 2018 on victims who had been cheated on Carousell. He decided to commit similar offences and registered multiple Carousell accounts.
As the registration process for a Carousell account required a mobile phone number, Poh posted on multiple Facebook groups to ask if anyone needed a job.


After receiving responses, he told the jobseekers that he needed their mobile phone numbers, which he then used to register the Carousell accounts.
He also asked the jobseekers for the one-time-password that was sent to their devices to register the accounts.
Poh then told the jobseekers to wait for his response but did not get back to any of them.

To carry out his scam, Poh posted advertisements on Carousell purporting to sell various products. Most of them were tickets to attractions, particularly Universal Studios Singapore as he had noticed many people were looking to buy them on the platform.
Between Jan 1 and Dec 28, 2019, Poh duped multiple victims into believing he had items for sale, resulting in them transferring more than $76,000 to various bank accounts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Shao Yan told the court: "As part of his deception, the accused sent some of the victims fake tickets by e-mail. He created these tickets by retrieving images of the tickets from the Internet and editing the ticket details.
"Thereafter, he sent the edited tickets to the victims and informed them that they were valid e-tickets."
After deceiving his victims, Poh instructed them to transfer money to bank accounts belonging to online casinos which he frequented.

He then gambled with the money and transferred his winnings to bank accounts belonging to his mother and late father, which he had full control of.
Using a similar method, Poh cheated more victims of over $11,000 between Jan 1 and June 14, 2020. The police received numerous reports about the offences.
Poh was caught in a surprise raid at his home on June 16, 2020.
Defence lawyer S. Balamurugan told the court on Wednesday that his client cheated his victims to fuel his gambling habit. Citing a medical report, he said Poh has a severe gambling disorder, which contributed to his offences.
Arguing against the defence's assertion, DPP Ng said: "As stated in the report, his cheating offences provided 'means to enable him to have a chance to gamble and win'. This would not qualify as a direct causal link to his cheating offences."
Poh has not made any restitution to his victims.
For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Spate of delistings from SGX due to low liquidity and poor valuations, stakeholders say​

Some companies also cited poor market conditions as well as the high costs of staying listed as reasons to delist. PHOTO: BT FILE

Kang Wan Chern
Assistant Business Editor

SEP 14, 2022

SINGAPORE - Amid recession fears and liquidity drying up as interest rates rise, the local bourse has seen a spate of offers to privatise and delist several publicly traded companies, with three taking place just this week.
The delistings come at a time when trading volumes on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) have fallen, and experts said more are likely to follow.
In the first half of the year, total traded value in ordinary shares and trust units on SGX fell by 6 per cent to $308 billion year on year, according to the bourse.
On Wednesday, Indonesian water treatment operator Moya Holdings Asia announced a voluntary cash offer from major shareholder Tamaris Infrastructure.
This came barely a day after an investment vehicle owned by the top executives of Singapore Medical Group (SMG) launched an offer to take the company private.
Also on Tuesday, Memories (2022), an associate of Myanmar tycoon Serge Pun, sought the voluntary delisting of tourism company Memories Group as prospects for growth in Myanmar fade.
Earlier in the day, a $1.35 billion proposal by major shareholder Frasers Property to take Frasers Hospitality Trust private fell through after it narrowly missed the 75 per cent vote needed to pass the resolution.

Other notable delistings this year include those of property companies Roxy-Pacific and SingHaiyi Group, and steel specialist TTJ Holdings.
Some of the companies cited poor market conditions, and low valuations and trading liquidity on the SGX, as well as the high costs of staying listed as reasons to delist.
SMG chief executive Beng Teck Liang said the company's poor share price performance had constrained its ability to "execute inorganic growth initiatives and build upon its track record of growth through acquisitions". He added that delisting would enable SMG to be more aggressive in pursuing growth.


Mr S. Nallakaruppan, president of the Singapore Society of Remisiers, said: "Companies list either because they can get much better valuations as a publicly listed company, or because of the ease with which they can raise additional capital to advance growth prospects.
"If neither of these conditions is met, the listed company is better off being privatised, and that is what has been happening to the Singapore market over the past several years."
Mr Justin Tang, head of Asian research at advisory firm United First Partners, said that due to disparities between the stocks' share prices and valuations, now is a good time for acquirers to take poorly traded companies off the market at reasonable levels.

The number of buyouts and delistings will continue only as long as the market fails to properly value the stocks of listed companies, said Mr Mano Sabnani, an active investor in the Singapore stock market.
"Major shareholders and other institutional investors, like private equity, look at the cash flows and assets of a company and are able to tell when a company is undervalued. It is natural that some would take the opportunity to privatise at low prices."
One reason for the low valuations is a lack of trust in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the SGX, Mr Sabnani said.
Past market events such as the 2009 crash of S-chips (Chinese companies listed on the SGX) due to poor governance and the 2013 penny stock crash due to market manipulation have hurt investor confidence in this segment and pummelled share prices. This, in turn, has perpetuated low trading volumes in SMEs, he said.
"Meanwhile, there has been an overall shift in preference to blue-chip stocks and real estate investment trusts, which have steadier yields and are less traded."
Mr Sabnani said SMEs should do more to engage with investors and raise awareness of their businesses and growth potential, adding that "this is now lacking".
Still, some analysts see interest returning to the Singapore market as the Covid-19 pandemic abates and opportunities for growth emerge.
SGX officials have also raised efforts to court secondary listings and bring fresh options, such as special purpose acquisition companies, or Spacs, to market.
In the first half of the year, SGX saw 10 initial public offerings, which raised $572 million in proceeds. In comparison, there were eight new listings in 2021, raising $1.7 billion. Six of this year's IPOs were on Catalist, the SGX platform for fast-growing companies.
The bourse did not respond to queries by press time.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

UOB staff stop elderly man from losing $150,000 to 'girlfriend from Netherlands' in Internet love scam​

UOB service associate Jenny Hong (right) and assistant branch manager Alison Cheng stopped an account holder from losing $150,000. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

Nadine Chua


SEP 18, 2022

SINGAPORE - When a flustered man walked into UOB Bank's main branch trying to bank in a cheque of more than $150,000 to an offshore account, service associate Jenny Hong got suspicious.
The first telltale sign was the name of the account holder and the account number did not match, she said.
When Ms Hong, 46, probed the man, in his 70s, further and asked why he needed to send money to the overseas account, he grew more rattled.
The incident happened earlier this year at the bank's main branch in Raffles Place.
Ms Hong said: "It was odd because he was trying to bank in such a large amount of money into an account that was not his. He kept saying it was very urgent and when I asked him more about it, his answers grew more and more incoherent."
Sensing something amiss, Ms Hong, who has worked at UOB for 27 years, flagged the incident to the bank's assistant branch manager Alison Cheng.
They then realised the man was being scammed.

Ms Cheng, 55, said: "He said the money was for his girlfriend in The Netherlands.
"He told me he had just met her on Facebook and knew her for two months. She insisted she needed his money to complete a business deal and get commission from it."
At that point, Ms Cheng's aim was to convince the man he was being scammed and persuade him to halt the transfer.

"I asked if he had seen scam articles in the news. He said yes, but insisted he was not being scammed.
"He said it was love and his girlfriend needed the money urgently," recounted Ms Cheng.
She spent the next half an hour convincing him about scams and it was only then did he understand he had almost become a victim of an Internet love scam.
Ms Cheng added: "The man was suddenly resolute and told us not to carry out the transaction."
He also made a police report.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Can you spot a scam? Find out how well you know 6 common scams in S'pore
Staying ahead of scammers an opportunity for S'pore to boost its financial reputation: Experts
According to the mid-year crime statistics released by the police last month, more than $20 million was lost to Internet love scams in the first six months of the year.
There were 477 cases in the first half of 2022, a dip from the 546 cases during the same period last year.
Mr Richard Soh, group head of integrated fraud management at UOB, said staff at bank branches are trained to spot telltale signs of suspicious transactions and take appropriate actions to handle them.
"These include dissuading customers from sanctioning questionable transactions and assisting them to report scams to the police," he said.
National University of Singapore business professor Lawrence Loh said it is assuring the preventive measures against scams are not just a part of an abstract policy, but have been internalised in financial institutions here.
More of such interventions will sustain the confidence level of overseas investors in our financial hub, he noted.
Prof Loh, whose expertise is on strategy and policy, added: "Every scam case can add up to the small hit that scams as a whole may have on Singapore's reputation as a financial hub.
"So, if we can eradicate whatever impact scams have on our reputation, no matter how little, we're moving in the right direction."

 

[hollowman]

UOB staff stop elderly man from losing $150,000 to 'girlfriend from Netherlands' in Internet love scam​

UOB service associate Jenny Hong (right) and assistant branch manager Alison Cheng stopped an account holder from losing $150,000. ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

Nadine Chua


SEP 18, 2022

SINGAPORE - When a flustered man walked into UOB Bank's main branch trying to bank in a cheque of more than $150,000 to an offshore account, service associate Jenny Hong got suspicious.
The first telltale sign was the name of the account holder and the account number did not match, she said.
When Ms Hong, 46, probed the man, in his 70s, further and asked why he needed to send money to the overseas account, he grew more rattled.
The incident happened earlier this year at the bank's main branch in Raffles Place.
Ms Hong said: "It was odd because he was trying to bank in such a large amount of money into an account that was not his. He kept saying it was very urgent and when I asked him more about it, his answers grew more and more incoherent."
Sensing something amiss, Ms Hong, who has worked at UOB for 27 years, flagged the incident to the bank's assistant branch manager Alison Cheng.
They then realised the man was being scammed.

Ms Cheng, 55, said: "He said the money was for his girlfriend in The Netherlands.
"He told me he had just met her on Facebook and knew her for two months. She insisted she needed his money to complete a business deal and get commission from it."
At that point, Ms Cheng's aim was to convince the man he was being scammed and persuade him to halt the transfer.

"I asked if he had seen scam articles in the news. He said yes, but insisted he was not being scammed.
"He said it was love and his girlfriend needed the money urgently," recounted Ms Cheng.
She spent the next half an hour convincing him about scams and it was only then did he understand he had almost become a victim of an Internet love scam.
Ms Cheng added: "The man was suddenly resolute and told us not to carry out the transaction."
He also made a police report.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Can you spot a scam? Find out how well you know 6 common scams in S'pore
Staying ahead of scammers an opportunity for S'pore to boost its financial reputation: Experts
According to the mid-year crime statistics released by the police last month, more than $20 million was lost to Internet love scams in the first six months of the year.
There were 477 cases in the first half of 2022, a dip from the 546 cases during the same period last year.
Mr Richard Soh, group head of integrated fraud management at UOB, said staff at bank branches are trained to spot telltale signs of suspicious transactions and take appropriate actions to handle them.
"These include dissuading customers from sanctioning questionable transactions and assisting them to report scams to the police," he said.
National University of Singapore business professor Lawrence Loh said it is assuring the preventive measures against scams are not just a part of an abstract policy, but have been internalised in financial institutions here.
More of such interventions will sustain the confidence level of overseas investors in our financial hub, he noted.
Prof Loh, whose expertise is on strategy and policy, added: "Every scam case can add up to the small hit that scams as a whole may have on Singapore's reputation as a financial hub.
"So, if we can eradicate whatever impact scams have on our reputation, no matter how little, we're moving in the right direction."

Just wondering how he accumulated 150k in the 1st place for thr stupidity. Also how much he left with after transferring 150k.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Jail for investment scammer who cheated 4 victims of more than $1.1 million​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent


SEP 20, 2022

SINGAPORE - A serial investment scammer was an introducing broker with a forex brokerage between 2013 and 2015 when he cheated four people of $1,128,000.
On Tuesday, Hong Ban Joo, 51, who was with NoaFX and managed to return $351,080 to three of them, was sentenced to six years and two months' jail after he pleaded guilty to six counts of cheating.
Deputy public prosecutors Norman Yew and Cheng You Duen stated in court documents that NoaFX is a forex brokerage, offering online services for trading in currencies.
Users may register trading accounts on its website and use them to place currency trades. They can also allow traders to use their accounts to place trades and make trading decisions on their behalf.
The court heard that Hong, as an introducing broker, was entitled to receive rebates on trades executed on trading accounts that were opened through his referral of investors to NoaFX.
At Hong's request, he was issued with multiple dummy accounts, which were meant to be used to test out trading strategies without risk on the NoaFX platform. The DPPs said a dummy account is meant to simulate a real trading account but would neither involve real investment monies nor incur any transaction fees.
A dummy account also has the same appearance as a real trading account, such that a user of the platform would not be able to distinguish it from a real trading one.

Hong did not have any real trading account with NoaFX between 2013 and 2015. He also did not open any real trading accounts for the four victims.
Among other things, he collected $660,000 from one of his victims to purportedly make investments and generate returns for the latter.
Instead, Hong used up to 90 per cent of the man's monies to pay creditors.

Hong had earlier invited the man to give him money for him to purportedly utilise for forex trading and related investments to generate returns. Hong later failed to deliver what was promised.
The court heard that Hong and the man then prepared a "fund management agreement", which Hong signed.
Under the agreement, Hong acknowledged receiving the man's monies for investment purposes and agreed to pay him a fixed return of 8 per cent per month.
The DPPs said: "The accused knew that his representations to (the man) were false, as the accused did not intend to use all of (the man's) monies for investments to generate returns... Instead, he had intended to use part of (the) monies to pay earlier investors to whom the accused owed money."

Hong also duped the man into believing that all his monies were put into real trading accounts with NoaFX by providing him access to the dummy accounts.
Between July 2013 and September 2015, Hong gave him around $200,000 as purported returns when in fact these sums were derived from monies obtained from the other investors.
Between October 2015 and February 2017, Hong also gave him about $80,000 as restitution.
The court heard that Hong used a similar method to cheat at least one other victim, from whom he collected $350,000.
Court documents did not disclose how the offences came to light.
The court heard on Tuesday that Hong intends to appeal against his sentence and was offered bail of $80,000.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Woman cheated of $350k in kidnapping scam; victim also forced to make videos for ransom demands​

The messages between the scammer and victim (left) and the fake official investigation document. PHOTOS: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE

Zhaki Abdullah


SEP 24, 2022

SINGAPORE - A 21-year-old woman has been arrested for her alleged involvement in a kidnapping scam which saw a victim cheated of more than $350,000.
The victim was also made to record a video of herself with her hands and legs tied up, so the scammers could use it to demand a ransom from her parents in China.
The police said the suspect was caught after they received a report on Tuesday that the victim, who is also 21, had supposedly been kidnapped.
"Prior to the report, the parents of the victim, who were based in China, received a video of the victim with her hands and legs tied up, with a ransom demand from an unknown person communicating in Mandarin," said the police in a statement on Saturday.
Police officers, including those from the Tanglin Police Division and Criminal Investigation Department, investigated the incident and found the victim safe on Thursday in a Yishun flat rented by the suspect.
The suspect was arrested for her purported involvement in the China officials impersonation scam.
The police said their preliminary investigations showed that the victim had received a call from someone claiming to be an officer from Singapore's Health Ministry.

The caller claimed a phone line registered in the victim's name had been used to cheat people in China.
"When the victim denied this, the call was redirected to another scammer purporting to be an officer from the 'China Police', who further alleged that a bank account in her name was also found to be involved in money laundering activities in China," the police said.
The scammer then told the victim to transfer more than $350,000 to specified bank accounts as supposed bail money to avoid being deported.
The victim was also told to record a video of herself tied up, to assist in the purported investigations.
Following this, she was told not to communicate with anyone else and had to isolate herself in a "safe house".
The police said the victim was unaware that the video was sent to her parents in China, with the scammer demanding more money for her release.
After arresting the suspect in Singapore, the police learnt that she had acted on the scammer's instructions to rent the room for the victim.

She was also told to give the victim a mobile phone for her to communicate with the scammer.
Investigations into the case are ongoing, the police said, reminding the public that overseas law enforcement agencies have no jurisdiction to help with any investigations here without the Singapore Government's approval.
From January to August this year, a total of 476 China official impersonation scams were reported, with losses amounting to at least $57.3 million.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

He said that RM2,034,350,000 were later transferred from Najib's account to Tanore Singapore between Aug 2 and Aug 23, 2013.

Najib received $648 million in his private account in 2013, 1MDB trial was told​

Based on the account statement, RM155 million were deposited three times in Najib Razak's account on March 22, 2013. PHOTO: AFP

Sep 26, 2022

KUALA LUMPUR - Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak received a total sum of RM2.08 billion (about S$648 million) in his private bank account through nine transactions in 2013, the High Court heard on Monday.
The branch manager of AmBank (Malaysia) at its Jalan Raja Chulan branch, Ms R. Uma Devi, testified that the funds that went into Najib's bank account were through transactions between March and April 2013. Najib's account at the Malaysian bank ends with the digits 694.
Based on the account statement, Ms Uma Devi said RM155 million were deposited three times in Najib's account on March 22, 2013.
Four days later on March 26, a sum of RM188,001,963.02 was credited into the account.
The witness testified in Najib's trial that on March 28 that year, RM231,150,000 and RM138,824,962.98 more went into the same account in two transactions.
Ms Uma Devi was testifying at the second corruption trial of Najib linked to troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
She said there were three transactions on April 8, 9 and 10 with the amounts of RM152.5 million, RM304 million and RM602 million banked in, respectively.

Najib is in jail​

Najib, 69, is currently serving 12 years in jail for corruption tied to SRC International Bhd, a former unit of 1MDB, after the apex Federal Court on Aug 23 upheld the conviction by the High Court and the Appeals Court.
Monday's trial is one of other graft trials the ex-premier is facing linked to 1MDB from which billions were siphoned.
The United States Department of Justice has said that US$4.5 billion (S$6.4 billion) were stolen from 1MDB by top officials and their associates.


In the ongoing trial, Najib is facing four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totalling RM2.28 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money-laundering involving the same amount.
The High Court is currently hearing the testimony from Ms Uma Devi, the 37th prosecution witness.
Najib started 1MDB when he became prime minister and finance minister in 2009. He was also chairman of the board of advisers of 1MDB until it was dissolved in 2016.
Both 1MDB and SRC International are fully owned by the Minister of Finance Incorporated, a company under Malaysia's finance ministry.


The government's lead prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram in his opening statement of the trial, told the court that the RM2.08 billion were from Tanore Finance, and the monies had in fact originated from 1MDB, TheEdge online news reported on Monday.
Tanore Finance was controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong, an alleged associate of fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
Mr Gopal Sri Ram had told the court that the money laundering charges faced by Najib in the ongoing case involved a sum of RM2,081,476,926.
He said that RM2,034,350,000 were later transferred from Najib's account to Tanore Singapore between Aug 2 and Aug 23, 2013.
The balance of RM22,649,000 was used to pay four entities and an individual.
"It is the prosecution's case that all these payments benefited the accused," said Mr Gopal Sri Ram.
The hearing will continue before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah on Tuesday.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Victim loses $199,000 to scammers posing as police officers​

The police have said that they do not ask members of the public to provide details such as their bank account information and passwords, or to transfer money to any bank accounts. PHOTO: ST FILE
Gabrielle Chan

Oct 8, 2022

SINGAPORE - A single victim lost at least $199,000 in October to a government official impersonation scam.
In a statement on Friday, the police said that in this latest kind of scam, victims will receive unsolicited phone calls from scammers who would identify themselves as bank staff, and alert the victims to financial transactions made on the victim's card. The unsolicited phone calls come with a "+65" prefix.
When the victims deny making these transactions, the scammers will proceed to transfer the victims to a "police officer" for investigation, who in actual fact is another scammer using the name of a real police officer.
After gaining the trust of the victims, the scammers will ask them to provide personal information and bank details, and to transfer money out from their own bank accounts to other bank accounts.
According to the police, victims of this scam variant will realise they were scammed only when they find out about the unauthorised transactions or when they do not get back the money they had transferred out of the accounts for the purpose of the "investigation".
There have been several cases of people receiving such phone calls, however so far only one person has lost money to the scam.
The police have said that they do not ask members of the public to provide details such as their bank account information and passwords, or to transfer money to any bank accounts.

They added that no local government agency will instruct payment through undocumented media such as the telephone or social messaging platforms, or ask for personal banking information.
Members of the public are advised to ignore calls with the "+" prefix which originate from overseas, to never share their Singpass, bank account details and one-time passwords with anyone and to always verify any information with official websites in case of uncertainty.
For more information on scams, visit the scam alert website or call the Anti-Scam Hotline on 1800-722-6688. Anyone with information on scams can call the police hotline on 1800-225-0000, or submit the information online at this website.
The Straits Times has contacted the police for more details about the lone victim's case.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Scammers tricked 17-year-old foreign student into becoming their ‘undercover agent’​

Worried about getting into trouble with the authorities and wanting to bring honour to his family, Peter took his role seriously. PHOTO: ST FILE

Wong Shiying


OCT 16, 2022

SINGAPORE - When scammers posing as China officials demanded he pay a $60,000 fine for money laundering offences, a frightened 17-year-old foreign student agreed to become their "undercover agent" to combat fraud.
The Secondary 4 student from China was told he would be forgiven for his crimes and, if he performed well, would even be recommended to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) some day.
Worried about getting into trouble with the authorities and wanting to bring honour to his family, Peter (not his real name) took his role seriously.
In an interview on Oct 7, the student's guardian, who declined to be named, told The Sunday Times how the teen was tricked into working for scammers in July.
The guardian, who is in his 30s, said the scammers went to great lengths to manipulate Peter into thinking he would be working as an undercover agent for them in an operation to nab fraudsters.
This included transferring $500 to Peter to buy a suit, tie, shoes and a briefcase, and to take an identity card photo as an agent.
They also faked care and concern for him, texting and calling him every few hours to remind him to eat and study hard.

For two to three weeks, Peter reciprocated enthusiastically by reporting his every activity, such as when he left school, to the scammers.
With the photo he had taken, the scammers fashioned a fake identification pass for him.
Peter's first task was to show the fake pass to someone, presumably a scam victim, said his guardian, and get the individual to sign a document.


When he completed the task, the scammers praised him and reiterated that he could one day join the CCP.
Encouraged, Peter took on his second task of printing documents that the scammers had sent him.
But the printing shop was closed. With time running out, he asked his guardian for help.
Said the guardian: "That was when I felt something weird was going on as he was reluctant to send me what he wanted to print."

After the guardian questioned Peter further, the teen revealed everything.
The guardian was horrified that Peter refused to believe he had been scammed.
The guardian told Peter the criminals would have used a cash deposit machine to transfer him the $500 to cover their tracks. When the teenager saw it was true, he realised he had been tricked.
The guardian took Peter to the police station immediately. He was arrested and had his passport impounded.
The guardian engaged a lawyer, Mr Richard Siaw from R.S. Solomon LLC.
Following investigations, Peter was let off with a warning.
Mr Siaw said: "Luckily, we had taken screenshots of his conversations with the scammers as evidence, as all the messages were deleted when the scammers realised something was wrong."
The experience was stressful for Peter and it affected his studies, but it was a valuable lesson for him.
The teenager said: "I suggest everyone think twice before acting and be vigilant when dealing with calls from strangers."

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

More foreigners scammed in S'pore, with $88m lost in 2021​

The number of cases involving foreigner victims had also increased from 3,431 in 2020 to 5,210 in 2021. PHOTO: ST FILE

Wong Shiying

OCT 16, 2022

SINGAPORE - Malaysian nurse Pan Han Ni, 34, met a man on an online dating app, and in just a week, he scammed her of $77,000.
She said the man continually pressured her to put her money into an investment platform in March, which she did and now regrets it.
More foreigners are falling victim to scams in Singapore, with the amount of money lost more than doubling from $40.4 million in 2020 to $88 million in 2021, police figures revealed.
The number of cases involving foreign victims also increased from 3,431 in 2020 to 5,210 in 2021.
This comes amid an overall spike in scam cases in Singapore, with victims losing at least $633.3 million in 2021, compared with $268.4 the previous year.
Police told The Sunday Times that the top three scams that affected foreigners in 2021 were phishing scams, job scams and e-commerce scams.
Said Ms Pan: "He made me feel very guilty for not trusting him. He also said I was being selfish, as the extra income (from the investment) could benefit my family and friends."

Stressed, she gave in to his requests, and, over a few days, deposited all her savings worth about $37,000 into the fake platform.
Even then, the scammer told Ms Pan to borrow money from her friends, so they, too, could reap the profits of the investment.
She borrowed about $40,000 from friends to invest and realised it was all a hoax when she asked to borrow money from the scammer and he became evasive.

After making a police report, she broke down and contemplated suicide. Her funds have not been recovered to date.
Ms Pan was able to get back on her feet with the support of family and friends who reassured her she could take her time to pay them back.
She said: "It was a really traumatic experience and I wouldn't want anyone to go through it. I'm working hard to make the money back and I'm less trusting towards strangers now."
Mr N. Srinivasan, director of Hoh Law, said his firm has seen migrant workers seeking legal help for scam-related issues.
He said: "Some of them get a call from a scammer claiming to be from the Ministry of Manpower, asking them for their personal details. If they do not give it, the scammers will threaten to cancel their work permits, which is what the workers are most afraid of."

Mr Ethan Guo, general manager of Transient Workers Count Too said migrant workers are also affected by job scams.
He said: "When migrant workers seek new employment, they may turn towards unverified postings on Facebook, many of which turn out to be fake.
"These job ads promise a job placement and ask for an upfront 'agent fee'. The 'agents' then become uncontactable after payment is made."
Mr Richard Siaw, founder of R.S. Solomon law firm, said that since the end of 2020, he has seen more foreign clients falling victim to scams involving the impersonation of officials from China.
In such scams, victims typically receive a call from scammers claiming to be from government agencies such as the Ministry of Health.
Their calls would then be transferred to several parties before victims speak to a "Chinese official" who claims they are under investigation for offences such as money laundering.

Mr Siaw said scammers prey on a victim's fear of breaking the law, and foreigners who are unfamiliar with Singapore's systems may have difficulties ascertaining the identity of the caller.
Mr Yusfiyanto Yatiman, who is a partner with the white-collar crime practice at Rajah & Tann Singapore law firm, said he has seen foreign clients seek legal assistance for scams for three broad reasons.
First, they had fallen victim to a scam; second, they were involved in scam operations; and third, criminal proceeds of the scam had passed through their bank accounts without their knowledge.
He said: "In the case of victims, we will guide and act for them in terms of legal assistance for the recovery of monies, but it is usually very difficult when funds have already been transferred."

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Man kidnapped in Thailand jailed 17 months over unrelated criminal breach of trust charges​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Oct 26, 2022

SINGAPORE - A Singaporean man, who was kidnapped in Thailand in 2020 while out on bail over three counts of criminal breach of trust involving more than $320,000, has been convicted of the charges linked to the monies and sentenced to 17 months’ jail on Wednesday.
After a trial, District Judge Soh Tze Bian also found Mark Cheng Jin Quan, 34, guilty of consenting to a company’s conduct in the business of fund management, even though it did not have a capital markets services licence - an offence under the Securities and Futures Act.
One of his accomplices, Loh Zhi Xiang, then 31, who is also known as Jeff, was sentenced to 18 months’ jail in August 2021 after pleading guilty to offences including two counts of criminal breach of trust.
The case involving an alleged accomplice, Peh Wei Siang, 34, is pending.
Court documents did not disclose any details about the kidnapping incident.
In earlier proceedings, the court heard that Cheng was the operations director of Zabel Global Investments, a firm which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in August 2013.
The court heard that, from April to June 2014, multiple parties were solicited to invest in funds the company managed, and they delivered more than $8.3 million to it.


Zabel had no other sources of income apart from the funds it managed. It was also involved in fund management - a regulated activity.
Ms Cheng Yuxi, then a deputy public prosecutor, had said: “At the time that Zabel was conducting the regulated activity... Zabel did not hold the requisite (capital markets services) licence, nor was it exempt from the requirement to have (it).”
In February 2014, Cheng opened a UOB Kay Hian trading account solely for Zabel’s use as a temporary measure until bank accounts were opened in Zabel’s name.

The following month, he opened a personal UOB current account to receive funds from the UOB Kay Hian trading account.
The then-prosecutor had earlier told the court: “The funds that Zabel collected from its investors... were deposited into the accused’s (UOB Kay Hian) trading account. When these monies were to be paid out, they were withdrawn... deposited into the accused’s UOB (current) account, and thereafter withdrawn from the latter.”
In May and June 2014, more than $320,000 was paid out of the monies in Cheng’s UOB current account for items such as commissions to Peh and Loh.
UOB Kay Hian lodged a police report against Zabel, Peh, Loh and Cheng on July 1, 2014. The Commercial Affairs Department started its investigations two days later.
The prosecution told the court that Cheng and Loh had conspired to dishonestly misappropriate the monies, adding: “They were not entitled to use these monies for anything but investment at the material time.”
The Straits Times had previously reported that Cheng was out on bail in January 2020 and supposedly on a one-day trip to Thailand, when he was kidnapped there.
Cheng had claimed that his kidnappers beat and electrocuted him with wires while demanding he pay his own ransom of US$500,000 (S$708,461) in bitcoin.
According to Cheng, he managed to flee his captors and was picked up by a man on a motorcycle, who dropped him off at Ongkarak police station in Nakhon Nayok province, about a 90-minute drive from Bangkok.
He returned to Singapore soon after.
On Wednesday, the court heard that Cheng intends to file an appeal and was offered bail of $160,000.
For each count of criminal breach of trust, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

UOB wins appeal against developer Lippo over inflated purchase prices of Sentosa Cove condo​

UOB had accused Lippo Marina Collection of conspiring to obtain financing from banks so that it could dispose of its 38 units at the Marina Collection. PHOTO: ST FILE

Joyce Lim
Senior Correspondent

Oct 28, 2022

SINGAPORE – UOB has won an appeal against an Indonesian developer over losses and damages it suffered from disbursing about $182 million in inflated home loans, but its claim on the firm’s deceit was rejected.
The Appellate Division of the High Court found that Lippo Marina Collection (LMC), a unit of Indonesia’s Lippo Group, had used unlawful means in a conspiracy with real estate agents to sell properties to be financed by UOB.
The conspiracy resulted in UOB losing a large amount of money after it financed more than 100 per cent of the purchase prices of high-end apartments.
The amount of damages LMC will have to pay UOB will be determined at a later stage.
The long legal battle began in 2014 and concluded in May this year. In a judgment released in June, High Court judge Aedit Abdullah had dismissed all of UOB’s claims against LMC, although the bank succeeded in its allegations of misrepresentations against the second and third defendants – property agents Goh Buck Lim, also known as Rick, and Aurellia Ho.
UOB had accused LMC of conspiring with Goh and Ho to obtain financing from the banks so that LMC could dispose of its 38 units at the Marina Collection in the face of difficult market conditions.
The 124-unit Marina Collection in Sentosa Cove was launched for sale in late 2007, but only 42 units were sold by March 10, 2011, after a series of cooling measures were introduced.

UOB disbursed about $182 million in mortgages between December 2011 and September 2013 to purported purchasers of 38 units in the condominium developed and sold by LMC.
By April 2015, all 38 buyers had defaulted on their loans.
The courts had heard that LMC gave substantial “furniture rebates” of 22 per cent to 34 per cent that were used to offset cash payments required for the condo purchases.

The furniture rebates, which were not disclosed to UOB, inflated the prices of individual properties in Option to Purchase forms by the value of the rebates.
Besides concealing the furniture rebates, the defendants also concealed the true identities of the purchasers.
It was later revealed that 32 of the 38 purchasers were nominees or fronts for four investors based in Indonesia. Only six were the intended beneficial owners of the units.
The appellate court noted in its judgment released on Friday that the sheer magnitude of the furniture rebates suggested that they were not genuine rebates.
For example, a furniture rebate of $2.39 million was granted for each of the last three units sold, which amounted to around 52.6 per cent of the $4.54 million actual purchase price.
The purchase price stated in the Option to Purchase forms was $6.931 million. UOB granted $5 million in housing loans for each of the three units.
Banks can lend only up to 80 per cent of the purchase price (or current market valuation, whichever is lower) of a residential property.

The amounts that UOB disbursed in these loans were well within that cap based on the stated purchase price, but they exceeded the actual purchase price by almost half a million dollars.
That excess was paid to the buyer, so each of them gained a significant cash benefit from the purchase.
The appellate court said the stated purchase price was merely a device to obtain higher valuations and, in turn, higher loans than what would otherwise have been disbursed if the real price was reflected on the Option to Purchase forms.
It disagreed with the High Court judge that the furniture rebate plan could still work even if LMC had not agreed to conceal the furniture rebates from UOB.
“If the furniture rebates had been disclosed in the first place, the entire scheme would have unravelled,” said the appellate court.
It also noted that it was LMC that had deliberately stated the false price in the Option to Purchase forms.
“It was not just a question of apathy, lack of concern or care or sharp practice; it was much more than that. Lippo had armed the purchasers with the instrument to deceive UOB ,” said judges of the Appellate Division Belinda Ang, Woo Bih Li and Quentin Loh.
“Lippo does not appear to fully appreciate the gravity of its conduct. Not only did it deceive UOB, other appraisers and purchasers would also rely on the stated purchase price in the Option to Purchase to value other units in Marina Collection which are purchased or in comparable projects.
“The stated purchase price presented a distorted picture of a segment of the property market.”
UOB was represented by lawyer Eddee Ng of Tan Kok Quan Partnership. It said in a statement to The Straits Times: “We are pleased with the court’s decision.”
LMC, which was represented by Senior Counsel Siraj Omar of Drew & Napier, said in a statement that the firm is pleased with the appellate court’s decision to disallow UOB’s claim of deceit, but it is disappointed with the other aspect of the ruling.
“The parties had attempted to resolve the dispute through mediation but were unsuccessful. We respect the court’s decision and will take it on board when engaging in future endeavours,” LMC said.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Victims lose $237,000 amid resurgence in SingPost and Singtel phishing scams: Police​

Scammers would impersonate the firms and send out e-mails embedded with fraudulent URL links. PHOTO: ST FILE
Aqil Hamzah

Nov 4, 2022

SINGAPORE - At least 85 people here have lost about $237,000 since January 2022 after falling victim to phishing scams involving purported e-mails from Singapore Post (SingPost) and telco Singtel.
It comes amid a resurgence in scammers impersonating both firms and sending out e-mails with unrelated domains, said the police on Thursday. The e-mails were embedded with fraudulent URL links which were designed to steal victims’ personal information.
In the case of the scam e-mails purportedly from Singtel, victims were told that their accounts faced billing issues due to missing information. They were instructed to click on the embedded link to renew their subscriptions.
In the SingPost scams, victims were notified that they had outstanding payments to make for parcel deliveries. They were directed to use the link to make payments.
However, police said these links redirected the victims to fraudulent websites which then tricked them into providing their personal information, including their account username and password, as well as credit or debit card details and their one-time passwords.
Victims only realised they had been scammed after they discovered unauthorised transactions made using their credit or debit cards.
The advisory comes just before a slew of end-of-the-year sales are rolled out online, including the 11.11 sale, which falls on Nov 11.

Such sales are often promoted on e-commerce platforms. A report in January by data and analytics company GlobalData projected that e-commerce spending in Singapore would grow from $7.8 billion in 2021 to $14.2 billion in 2025.

In the SingPost scams, victims were notified that they had outstanding payments to make for parcel deliveries. PHOTOS: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
This year, consumers in Singapore are projected to spend $9.2 billion online.
The police advise members of the public to refrain from clicking on links in unsolicited e-mails from e-mail addresses with suspicious domain names.
Instead, they should verify the authenticity of the information with the official website or other official sources.
They should also never disclose their personal information, credit card and bank details or passwords, including one-time passwords, to anyone else.

A scam e-mail purportedly sent from Singtel, telling a victim that his account faces a billing issue. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
Police said they should report any fraudulent transactions made with their e-payment accounts to the relevant service providers immediately.
For more information on scams, members of the public can visit www.scamalert.sg or call the anti-scam hotline at 1800-722-6688.
Anyone with information on such scams may call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000 or submit information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Singapore investors in bankrupt FTX crypto exchange resigned to writing off losses​

Institutional investors who backed FTX may face scrutiny for possibly allowing the company to run with little oversight. PHOTO: REUTERS
Yong Li Xuan

NOV 12, 2022

SINGAPORE - When news broke earlier this week about a liquidity crunch at cryptocurrency exchange FTX, financial adviser Ng Ming Jie was among those who tried to withdraw crypto from the platform.
The 33-year-old, who had been trading on FTX since mid-2021, was introduced to the platform by financial influencers, or finfluencers, online and stayed because of the comparatively low fees and functionality.
After FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday and began investigating a potential hack, Mr Ng has accepted he may never recover the “tens of thousands of dollars” he had invested on the platform.
“I didn’t put my life savings into it,” he said. “But it’s tens of thousands of dollars. I could have bought a new MacBook, television, refrigerator, washing machine and gone on a trip to Japan and still have money left over.
“That little bit of faith I had left in cryptocurrency is lost,” added Mr Ng who had invested about $70,000 in crypto exchanges since 2020.
Due to the volatility of crypto and the interest rate hike at the start of 2022, he had pulled back on his crypto investments from 30 per cent to less than 10 per cent of his investment portfolio.
Still, Mr Ng said FTX’s collapse was “super unexpected” because it was one of the largest crypto exchanges and many finfluencers such as personal finance expert Graham Stephan had promoted the platform actively on social media. “It’s almost equivalent to DBS, OCBC or UOB going under,” he added.

Due to backing from institutional investors such as Sequoia Capital and Singapore global investment company Temasek and a high trading volume, FTX was one of the more reputable exchanges, said Blockchain Association Singapore co-chairman Chia Hock Lai.
But after a CoinDesk article claimed last week that much of sister company Alameda’s assets were made up of FTX tokens (FTT) issued by FTX, allegations that FTX had offered extreme leverage – borrowing from some customers to lend to others – also surfaced.
“No one could have known they had bad practices,” said Mr Chia, noting that an exchange this large has never failed in this manner.

Institutional investors who backed FTX may face scrutiny for possibly allowing the company to run with little oversight.
“This is going to be a drawn-out process. A lot of skeletons in the closet will be dug out,” Mr Chia said.

Temasek, which is among FTX’s prominent institutional investors, said it had no further comments at this time. Temasek had previously told Reuters: “We are aware of the developments between FTX and Binance, and are engaging FTX in our capacity as shareholder.”
Mr Chia said he expects regulators to clamp down on crypto exchanges by restricting them from using customers’ funds or offering leverage, which will increase the cost of compliance to exchanges.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Oct 26 published two consultation papers proposing regulatory measures to reduce the risk of consumer harm from cryptocurrency trading and support the development of stablecoins.
Some of the proposed measures could require exchanges to disclose risks to retail investors so they can make informed decisions, as well as ban leverage by retail investors for crypto trading.
Ironically, some investors said in WhatsApp and Telegram crypto chats that they had moved to FTX because MAS stopped Binance from operating in Singapore.
For now, industry players are concerned about how FTX’s meltdown would affect its projects and other companies linked to it.
Though crypto prices across the board have fallen because of the collapse, crypto that FTX invested in, such as Solana, have seen prices plummet because investors expect FTX to liquidate all assets during the bankruptcy process.
Mr Daniel Lee, head of Web3 at Banking Circle who helped to set up the DBS Digital Exchange in 2018, expressed concern for the industry.
“Like it or not, crypto is part of the financial infrastructure. It is no longer just a small sideshow,” the 53-year-old said. “People could lose their jobs and there are a lot of jobs related to crypto.”

Mr El Lee, who invested in FTT and used FTX, said he is saddened by how the collapse transpired, but he remains committed to crypto.
“The industry will recover from the incident, but FTX will not,” said the co-founder of Digital Treasures Center who has been in the crypto industry since 2015. “I’ve never sold any of my major cryptocurrencies before. People might think it’s silly, but I’m a believer.”
The 36-year-old has written off all his investments tied to FTX and does not intend to try to recover them, but he may move his crypto assets to exchanges or wallets closer to home because of tighter regulations and accountability.
Bloomberg reported that investors with crypto on the FTX platform numbered more than five million worldwide at its peak, and many are resigning themselves to the fact that their holdings may be gone forever.
Investors who traded on the platform will have an idea of how much FTX’s assets are worth after the bankruptcy is finalised, but they are unlikely to recover much of their assets, Mr Chia said.
“Crypto is a very risky asset class, retail investors should avoid it,” he said, adding that retail investors should invest not more than 5 per cent of their net worth in it. “You could lose everything.”

 

[LITTLEREDDOT]

Answers needed in curious case of FTX’s Singapore entity​

Claire Huang
Business Correspondent

A key issue that has come up is why Singapore retail users and their assets are not parked under FTX's Singapore entity Quoine, which received an exemption from MAS. PHOTO: NYTIMES

NOV 15, 2022

SINGAPORE - The implosion of FTX, one of the darlings of the cryptocurrency world, has raised several important questions, the key of which points to fundamental flaws both within the exchange and outside.
FTX has filed for protection from bankruptcy as it owes billions to global users, wiping out hope that retail users can get any money back.
And herein lies a problem: Why are Singapore retail users and their assets not parked under FTX’s Singapore entity, Quoine, which has received an exemption from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)?
Doing so would have been good governance and in line with how FTX’s units in Japan and the United States operated. For background, FTX had in April wrapped up the acquisition of Japanese crypto exchange Liquid, which had a subsidiary, Quoine.
Quoine was granted an exemption from holding a licence under the Singapore Payment Services Act.
This meant it was allowed to offer digital payment token services to Singapore retail investors while it applied for an MAS licence.
The company was to be renamed FTX Singapore once it obtained a licence from MAS.

A check with users and people with knowledge of the company found that there has been no formal migration process of Singapore users from FTX.com to Quoine.
As former parliamentarian Calvin Cheng, who has an investment company that was awarded a Dubai virtual asset licence, said: “If Quoine is exempted and FTX.com isn’t, then FTX.com can’t be onboarding clients directly, only Quoine can.
“But when users sign on with FTX, did they sign on with Quoine? Were the funds stored by Quoine? Obviously not, otherwise the funds wouldn’t be stuck. It was stuck in FTX.com,” he said.

An FTX.com user who wanted to be known only as Mr Liu, 33, said unlike in Japan and the United States, “we were not forced to follow under the FTX Singapore entity”.
In Japan for instance, FTX set up a Japanese entity as required by the regulator and moved all its Japanese customers to this outfit, which has limited features and coins that can be traded.
“If you’ve a Japan-licensed entity, the firm has to have collateral assets to back its obligations,” said a person familiar with the industry.
American users have to open an account with FTX US and are not able to do so on FTX.com.

This brings us to the next issue – that crypto regulation in Singapore needs to be applied across the board.
Observers have drawn comparisons between the treatment of Binance and FTX, both of which are global exchanges that tried to obtain a licence from MAS through a Singapore entity.
MAS on Sept 2 last year ordered Binance to stop providing payment services in Singapore and to cease soliciting business from Singapore residents. It also placed Binance.com on its investor alert list to warn consumers that the exchange is not licensed in Singapore.
At that time, the regulator said it reviewed Binance.com’s operations and was of the view that the website’s operator Binance “may be in breach of the Payment Services Act for carrying out the business of providing payment services to, and soliciting such business from, Singapore residents without an appropriate licence”.
Binance’s Singapore entity in December withdrew its application for a licence from MAS and by February the subsidiary wound up.
Said Mr Cheng: “Binance was the only non-licensed offshore exchange that Singaporean residents couldn’t use. They complied. Did FTX.com have a licence, or any of the many global offshore exchanges out there?”
The issue here is compounded by the fact that many Singapore retail investors have been burnt in the FTX episode.
Singapore is said to account for more than 5 per cent of FTX’s total user percentage, behind South Korea, which is the top country, and ahead of Germany, which is in the third spot, based on earthweb.com.

Take 37-year-old Charles Tan for example. He shifted his trading to FTX in mid-2020 because of the Binance ban, and found FTX to be more user-friendly. Similar stories of how people were hit because they moved their money to FTX after Singapore’s Binance ban have popped up in local crypto circles and on social media.
Mr Alex Svanevik of blockchain analytics platform Nansen on Nov 9 wrote on Twitter: “A lot of people in Singapore held funds in FTX because Binance is banned here. Sad and ironic.”
MAS has said time and again that it cannot ban crypto trading because it is global. More importantly, it wanted to avoid driving retail users here to unregulated platforms overseas that it did not have oversight of.
For the uninitiated, FTX was founded by Mr Sam Bankman-Fried, who is in the Bahamas after his company filed for protection from bankruptcy and he resigned as chief executive.
The exchange is widely raved about in the crypto world and as staff would say of Mr Bankman-Fried: “People thought he’s not human, so he can do anything he wants.”
Mr Bankman-Fried was obviously charming and “very well-loved”, but in the corporate world, that should never be enough when it comes to investments, especially if hundreds of millions are to be poured in.
As a corporate veteran pointed out: “I’m surprised all the big private equity firms put so much money into FTX, which didn’t even have a board of directors. This is so basic.”

 

[eatshitndie]

one by one dominoes are collapsing. if you still have balances left in coinbase, crypto, and other sexchanges, cash out and run.