SINGAPORE – A former Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular was sentenced to six years and 10 months’ jail on May 8 after he broke into a man’s home, accessed the latter’s cryptocurrency wallet and stole 1.7 million USDT.
According to court documents, the amount of USDT that Teo Rong Xuan, 35, had stolen in 2023 was worth the same amount in US dollars – US$1.7 million (S$2.15 million).
The former captain with the Naval Diving Unit, who left the SAF in 2023, pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count each of housebreaking and misusing a computer system.
He also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of dealing with the ill-gotten gains.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan told the court that Teo, also known as Rex, joined the diving unit in 2010.
In June 2022, he met the victim, a 30-year-old Chinese national, through a mutual friend identified as “Zee” in court documents.
The victim had a “cold wallet” – a cryptocurrency wallet that was not connected to the internet.
The DPP said the man’s cold wallet was a “Ledger Nano X” hardware device that physically resembled a thumb drive or security token.
After buying the cold wallet, the victim registered it on an official mobile application, which generated 24 English words, each with a serial number.
He then wrote the “seed phrase”– a collection of the words and serial numbers that can be used to access an individual’s cryptocurrency wallet – on a piece of paper that he kept at home.
