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A 38-year-old Singaporean man will be charged in court on Saturday (March 14) for his alleged involvement in a case of government official impersonation scam involving losses of over $920,000.<\/p>\n
He is believed to have abetted by conspiracy to possess or use property from criminal conduct, police said on Friday (March 13).<\/p>\n
Police said they received a report from a female victim on Feb 10 who had received a call from an unknown person claiming to be from HSBC bank. The person informed her of a credit card under her name.<\/p>\n
When the victim denied having a credit card issued by the bank, the call was transferred to a person claiming to be from the Ministry of Law, and later to another person claiming to be from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.<\/p>\n
She was then told that she was involved in a case of money laundering and that her valuables were to be handed over for safekeeping purposes during the investigation.<\/p>\n
The victim ended up handing over valuables consisting gold and luxury watches worth more than $920,000 over two occasions to different individuals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A report was lodged after the victim realised that she was scammed.<\/p>\n
Preliminary investigations revealed that the man had allegedly received valuables from unknown persons on numerous occasions, believed to be part of a transnational crime syndicate. He is also suspected to be involved in other similar cases.<\/p>\n
He was arrested on Friday following extensive ground enquiries and follow-up investigations by officers from the Anti-Scam Command, Tanglin Police Division, and Police Operations Command Centre.<\/p>\n
Cash amounting to more than $92,500, a cash counting machine and three mobile devices were seized from the man as case exhibits.<\/p>\n
If found guilty of having abetted by conspiracy to possess or use property from criminal conduct, the 38-year-old may be jailed for up to three years, fined up to $150,000, or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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