5 years' jail for scam mastermind who cheated company director of $1.5m

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Shaffiq Alkhatib

SINGAPORE - Under the pretence of facilitating a loan deal, a man who was a bankrupt duped a director of three firms into handing over $1.5 million in February 2021.

Singaporean Wong Poh Kun, who masterminded the ruse, then transferred $1.25 million to an unnamed third party in Malaysia, while his accomplice kept $250,000 for his personal use.

On May 6, Wong, 70 was sentenced to five years' jail after he pleaded guilty to a cheating charge in February.

A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority revealed that he used to be a director at multiple firms including Genesis-Alliance Projects, Ideal Worlds and LP World Gourmet.

As at February, he has made no restitution to the 48-year-old victim, who was a director at Abiel Real Estate Fund VCC, Abiel Holdings and Abiel Spaceplus Aljunied at the time of the offence.

Court documents referred to them as the "Abiel companies".

Wong had met the victim through his accomplice Vincent Jason Sadok Fook Tai.

At that time, Tai was a director at two firms - AEC Development, which was purportedly in the consultancy business for funding and financing projects, and another firm known as Asia Alternative Fund (AAF).

Wong, who was looking for a loan of $1 million in 2020, was introduced to Tai in or around May that year.

However, the loan did not materialise as the younger man found out through checks that Wong did not have any income in Singapore.

In fact, Wong became a bankrupt in Malaysia in October 2019 and was also declared one in Singapore in June 2020.

Separately, on Dec 8, 2020, AEC Development entered into a loan agreement with the Abiel companies for a loan sum of $15 million.

This loan was for Abiel Spaceplus Aljunied's development of a commercial site in Aljunied and AEC Development was supposed to disburse the amount in tranches to Abiel Holdings.

However, AEC Development did not have the funds available at the time.