Man jailed 5 years and 8 months for role in $40M SkillsFuture scam
Lee Chi Wai pleaded guilty to two charges of acquiring criminal proceeds and one of concealing such proceeds. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)
A man was on Tuesday (27 November) jailed for 5 years and 8 months for his role in defrauding a public institution of $39.9 million.
Lee Chi Wai, 32, who acted as a money mule, pleaded guilty to two charges of acquiring criminal proceeds and one of concealing such proceeds.
A safe in the unemployed man’s flat contained nearly $7 million in ill-gotten cash and 11kg of gold in November last year, the court heard.
His sister Lee Lai Leng, 40, and her husband Ng Cheng Kwee, 42, are currently facing charges of scamming SkillFuture Singapore (SSG), a statutory board under the Ministry of Education tasked with promoting lifelong learning among Singaporeans. SSG subsidises fees for skills training courses.
Lai Leng is a housewife while her husband Ng operated coffeeshops from 2008 until some time between 2015 and 2016, when his business failed.
The couple, along with others, allegedly plotted to dupe SSG of monies. Between May and October last year, SSG disbursed $39.9 million in course fee subsidies to three bogus training providers and gave out $12,528 to six fake entities. The claims for SSG subsidies were purportedly made for some 25,000 employees that the six entities had sent to the three training providers.
But there were no employees trained. And SSG was conned into disbursing the public monies into the bank accounts of the nine bogus providers and entities.
Accused asked for loan, safe-kept cash
In May last year, Chi Wai found out that his sister and brother-in-law’s financial situation had improved tremendously. The couple were driving a second-hand Mercedes car and looking to buy a new home. Their previous home had been repossessed by the bank sometime between 2015 and 2016, as they had failed to service their housing loan, and the couple and their children moved in with Ng’s parents.
In late July last year, Lai Leng asked for the bank details of Chi Wai and their parents. She told her brother that her account “cannot have money”. Chi Wai replied to caution Lai Leng that there would be an “audit trail”.
In September last year, Lai Leng and her husband wanted to go to Hong Kong for a holiday. Chi Wai met them at the airport and his sister gave him a bag with $930,000 in cash for safe-keeping. Chi Wai kept the bag in a drawer at home.
Shortly after that, knowing his sister was getting richer, Chi Wai asked for a loan to buy a car. Lai Leng transferred him $30,000 and with the money, Chi Wai bought a second-hand car for $20,111.
Around the same time, the sister bought a safe and kept it in her brother’s home. She programmed it to be accessible only with her or her brother’s fingerprint. Between September and October last year, Lai Leng placed large amounts of cash and gold in the safe.
Collected gold bars
On 1 November last year, the sister called the brother and asked him to bring her $2.5 million in cash. Lai Leng also gave Chi Wai a receipt for five 1kg gold bars and asked him to collect and pay the remaining amount for the gold bars on her behalf. He did so and placed the gold in the safe in his home.
Later that day, Lai Leng called Chi Wai and asked him to empty out the safe, and pass its contents to someone else for safekeeping. The sister sounded flustered, and Chi Wai got nervous and scared. He understood that his sister wanted him to conceal all the cash and gold to evade detection. He placed most of the items in a duffel bag and a suitcase and left them in a friend’s home.
Shortly after, Lai Leng told Chi Wai to format his phone and their parents’ phone. He suspected that something was wrong. He did not format his phone, but deleted his WhatsApp conversations with his sister.
Both brother and sister were arrested the next day, and charged the following day. Chi Wai only disclosed the location of the cash and gold a day after he was charged.
Of the $39.9 million that was disbursed by SSG, $27.8 million was withdrawn from bank accounts. The police recovered the $6,742,380 in cash and 11kg of gold purchased using $626,500 that was in the safe.
Chi Wai has made restitution of the $30,000 in criminal proceeds that he loaned from his sister.
In a statement on its website, SSG said, “SSG takes a serious view of any individual, training provider or organisation that abuses SkillsFuture funding schemes and will not hesitate to act against any who contravene our funding rules or terms of use. Should you be contacted by any individual or organisation offering suspicious offers, please inform us via
6785 5785 or at our feedback portal here.”
