SINGAPORE: A man who was in debt to both licensed and unlicensed moneylenders agreed to receive and withdraw money for two men who showed up near his home in exchange for payment.
He received and withdrew a total of S$113,800 (US$89,800), of which about S$74,000 was from an 88-year-old victim of a government official impersonation scam.
Despite being arrested and charged, he entered into another arrangement for “fast cash”, and went on to handle about S$331,000 in scam proceeds.
On Tuesday (Feb 24), Lim Kim Chuan, a 33-year-old Singaporean, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ jail and fined S$23,000. If he cannot pay the fine, he will have to serve another one month and six days in jail in default.
Lim pleaded guilty to two counts of entering into an arrangement to handle criminal proceeds. A third charge was taken into consideration.
THE CASE
The court heard that Lim took loans from licensed and unlicensed moneylenders to finance payments for his car and other expenses.
By around August 2024, he had incurred “a lot of debt” including a sum of S$600 to a loan shark known as Alan.
Lim started to avoid the loan sharks and blocked them as he could not make the required repayments.
On Aug 30, 2024, two men approached Lim near his house and told them that they were working for Alan.
They said Lim owed more than S$5,000 due to the accumulated interest.
Lim said he could not repay it and offered his bank account to them for use. In response, the men asked Lim to receive money from them in his bank account, withdraw the money in full and hand over the cash to them. In exchange, they would clear his debt and pay him money.
Lim agreed.
The next day, while he was on his way to work, another man approached him to inform him that money had been transferred to his bank account.
