SINGAPORE – Fifteen people were charged on April 29 over their roles in assisting a syndicate incorporate shell companies, submitting work pass applications under these companies and letting others use their Singpass credentials.
The 14 men and one woman, all Singaporeans, were recruited by a criminal network through Telegram or in person, according to investigations so far, the police said. All 15 of them were arrested in September 2024.
The police reminded people against accepting monetary gains in exchange for the use of their Singpass accounts or credentials, they said in an April 28 statement.
“The police will take firm action against persons who give up their Singpass credentials to strangers or register for facilities on behalf of criminal syndicates, and prosecute such persons to the fullest extent of the law,” the statement added.
Lynn Sim Wei Ling, 34, faces two charges after using her Singpass account to help an unknown party access the e-services portal on the Singapore business registry to register a company, Timeout Pte Ltd.
She is also accused of providing an unknown person the means to access her Singpass portal.
Sim faces a third charge over obtaining work passes for six foreign nationals between February and July 2024 despite not requiring their employment and thereafter failing to employ them.
She will return to court on May 7.
Ang Kok Siang, 37, faces seven charges in total, including two for obtaining work passes for foreigners on 17 separate occasions between March and August 2024 as a director of Chiilling Pte Ltd and Lookhere Pte Ltd.
He did this despite not requiring their employment and had failed to employ them after obtaining the work passes.
Two charges relate to him aiding another man to employ a foreigner in April 2022 without a valid work pass, by obtaining a work permit for the foreign national as a migrant domestic worker under his employment despite knowing this was false.
Ang was handed another three charges over providing access to his Singpass account to unauthorised individuals. Between February 2022 and October 2024, his account was used more than 1,800 times to gain unauthorised access to the corporate authentication platform used by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority.
His charge sheets state that those actions had facilitated fraudulent work-pass applications. He will return to court on May 12.
