SINGAPORE: A total of US$3.4 million (S$4.67 million) was moved to Singapore in 2020 by scammers who exploited relaxed rules allowing remote registration of businesses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The scammers then transferred money they had stolen from overseas firms to Singapore.
A Chinese national named Liang Jiansen, 33, was given a fine of S$9,000 for offences under the Companies Act on Monday (Sept 25) for helping scammers register their companies in Singapore, The Straits Times reported.
Liang entered guilty pleas to two counts of failing to exercise reasonable diligence in his duty as a director.
Another similar charge was also considered in his sentencing.
Liang, who has permanent residency status, is an accredited accountant who relocated to Singapore in 2015. In 2020, he opened a corporate secretarial company, Yuansen Business, with the majority of his clients based in China.
That year, his firm would charge clients S$800 for services that included a nominee director, corporate secretarial services, and a registered company address. If the client’s company needed a bank account, he would add S$100 to S$150 to the fee.
To fulfil the requirement of firms registered in Singapore to have a local resident director, he would fill in his own name, and by January of the following year, Liang was listed as a director of 135 companies.
Two firms he set up in Singapore in 2020, Xin Yang Wu and Zheng Yan, had him open US dollar and Singapore dollar bank accounts at UOB.
These accounts received large amounts of money via transfers soon after they were opened, Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Ong said.
The individuals behind Xin Yang Wu and Zheng Yan went on to scam overseas firms, including Gasfin Development. The German company was billed for payment via email, which they thought came from a supplier.
Gasfin Development transferred S$44,055 to the SGD account of Xin Yang Wu, the bulk of which was moved to the company’s USD account and, from there, to a Chinese bank account.
Another victimised company was Northern Trust Company, a US business, which moved US$3 million to Xin Yang Wu’s US dollar account from its clients.
Fortunately, Singapore police seized the money before it could be transferred to another account, said DPP Ong.
Liang had never met the people behind Xin Yang Wu and Zheng Yan and had failed to conduct thorough background checks. Moreover, he did not exercise due diligence in overseeing the companies’ transactions.
DPP Ong chalked up his actions as due to negligence, and there is no proof that he was aware of the companies’ fraudulent activities.
“The accused knew nothing and did nothing, and was content to remain in his ignorance,” he said. /TISG
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