SINGAPORE – A man who agreed to help the sole director of a frozen food company obtain loans ended up cheating 21 victims of more than $3.8 million in total.
Sebastian Lim Qian Ji’s victims included his own father and friends.
To avoid detection, Lim told the victims to either hand over cash or make bank transfers to various intermediaries, including his mother and his then girlfriend.
These intermediaries would then deliver the money to him.
Lim, 33, has since returned around $860,000 to some of his victims, bringing the total loss to about $2.9 million.
Deputy public prosecutors Jordy Kay and Chan Wayde stated in court documents: “These returns were not made out of remorse and were not voluntary restitution.
“Instead, these monies were returned so as to gain the trust of the victims so that the accused could continue to perpetuate his mass cheating.”
They added that Lim had also used his ill-gotten gains to gamble and pay the frozen food company’s creditors.
On Aug 19, he pleaded guilty to a traffic-related offence as well as eight counts of cheating, with each cheating charge involving up to $694,100.
Court documents stated that Gerald Lee Hai Rui, 32, was the sole director of a company called Geroy, which was facing financial woes in early 2021.
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