SINGAPORE: On Friday (Feb 7), Raymond Ng was charged with cheating 12 people in connection with a business involving vending machines. The charges involve a total of nearly $61,000.
The 51-year-old Ng is the husband of Iris Koh, who made a reputation for herself during the Covid-19 pandemic as one of Singapore’s most outspoken anti-vaxxers. Ms Koh has also had run-ins with the law in the past few years, especially with the Ministry of Health, which warned that her group, Healing the Divide, shared content that perpetuates falsehoods and misleading information.
Ng, formerly a director at a vending machine company called Vendshare, is alleged to have committed cheating offences in 2019 and 2020, involving amounts between $1,000 and $13,900 for each person, according to a report in The Straits Times.
The first incident occurred sometime between August and December of 2019 when Ng allegedly deceived a man into thinking that the payments that totalled $2,500 that he made to Vendshare were for the purpose of co-owning vending machines. The former director then allegedly cheated 11 other individuals in a similar manner, with one man reportedly getting cheated out of $13,900, the highest amount.
ST added that Ng, who will be entering a plea of not guilty, will have his case next mentioned on March 7. He could be jailed for up to 10 years for each cheating conviction. He is currently out on bail of S$15,000.
Ng, together with Koh, made the news late last year after the death of Geno Ong, against whom they had filed a number of lawsuits. State Coroner Adam Nakhoda said on Dec 12 that Ms Ong had likely taken her own life out of worries over the increasing costs of the lawsuits filed against her.
The couple had filed two civil defamation suits, another suit for a protection order against harassment, and an application to commence committal proceedings for possible contempt of court.
Ms Ong was facing as much as $65,000 in legal fees, the police said. She wrote in Facebook posts prior to her death that she felt her body “breaking down bit by bit” and mentioned that her health problems were “due to the ballooning legal financial stress and threatening” from Mr Ng. She added that she did not seek medical treatment as she was saving money for the lawsuits, according to a CNA report on Dec 12.
Ng also made the news recently after he and his wife filed an application for former Nominated MP Calvin Cheng to remove a post on Facebook that they claimed was derogatory. A district court dismissed the application. /TISG