{"id":87541,"date":"2026-09-24T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=87541"},"modified":"2026-09-24T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:45:00","slug":"jail-for-man-who-had-firm-opened-in-his-name-its-bank-account-got-over-372k-in-scam-proceeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=87541","title":{"rendered":"Jail for man who had firm opened in his name; its bank account got over $372k in scam proceeds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">SINGAPORE \u2013 <!-- -->A Singapore Armed Forces regular has been given a jail sentence after he agreed to help a woman<a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/man-charged-after-his-companys-bank-account-allegedly-received-over-350k-in-scam-proceeds?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\"><span class=\"inline font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"typography-test-id\"> incorporate a company<\/span><\/a>, and had one opened under his name.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">According to court documents, the bank account of the firm, called Prodigym Trading, later received a total of US$274,945 <!-- -->(S$372,110)<!-- --> in scam proceeds from March 14 to 16, 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">N. M. Pranesh, 25, who was the company\u2019s sole director and shareholder, was sentenced to 11 months\u2019 jail on Sept 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He was also banned from being a director of any company and taking part in the management of any firm for a period of five years from his release date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He had pleaded guilty to being involved in an arrangement linked to the benefits of criminal conduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He also admitted he had failed to exercise any supervision over Prodigym\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The bank closed Prodigym\u2019s account in April 2022, and the company was struck off the following year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Straits Times has contacted the Ministry of Defence over Pranesh\u2019s case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">His legal woes started in January 2022,<!-- --> <!-- -->when a woman known only as \u201cJudy\u201d contacted him via Telegram and asked if he was interested in helping her incorporate a company in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Court documents stated that \u201cJudy\u201d, who had a Malaysian phone number, then promised to pay him $10,000 over a two-month period as part of an \u201cinvestment plan\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">It purportedly involved him helping her to set up the firm to sell watches from China.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Pranesh agreed to help \u201cJudy\u201d, who contacted him a few days later to ask for the log-in details of his Singpass account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Taking instructions from her, he shared information including his Singpass credentials with an unknown man via Telegram.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cJudy\u201d told Pranesh to talk to a woman called Tricia Lam, a representative of an unnamed corporate service provider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Lam told him she would be incorporating Prodigym on his behalf.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The pair had a video call on Feb 24, 2022, during which she asked him to hold up his identity card, and took a screenshot of him doing so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">According to court documents, Pranesh said \u201cJudy\u201d and other parties had earlier sent him <!-- -->instructions on what to say<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He then duped Lam into believing the company was for his own use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">He also did not inform her about<!-- --> <!-- -->\u201cJudy\u201d being involved in Prodigym.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Later that day, he transferred $650 from his personal bank account to Lam\u2019s company as payment for its incorporation fees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">On Feb 25, 2022,<!-- --> he was told that Prodigym<!-- --> was successfully incorporated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryan Wong said Pranesh was aware that \u201cJudy\u201d and her associates were engaged in something illegal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Between March 14 and 16 that year, US$274,945 in scam proceeds were transferred into Prodigym\u2019s bank account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The money had come from a <!-- -->love scam victim based in Germany, and her company<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">According to court documents, Pranesh said he tried to contact \u201cJudy\u201d after discovering that significant sums of money were withdrawn shortly after they were deposited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">However, he could not locate her on Telegram after March 16, 2022.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"portrait inline-media-wrapper\" style=\"--aspect-article-portrait:1140 \/ 760\" data-testid=\"inline-media-test-id\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/stop-scams\" rel=\"noopener\" class=\"\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_self\" data-testid=\"inline-image-link\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"flex flex-col items-start relative w-fit\"><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 480px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/straitstimes\/60ce0b2ea19bf01483b2d6179e4726384df98dd70d2287e23e7136299ec851b7?w=480\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 720px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/straitstimes\/60ce0b2ea19bf01483b2d6179e4726384df98dd70d2287e23e7136299ec851b7?w=720\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 721px and max-width: 3999px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/straitstimes\/60ce0b2ea19bf01483b2d6179e4726384df98dd70d2287e23e7136299ec851b7?w=900\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 4000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/straitstimes\/60ce0b2ea19bf01483b2d6179e4726384df98dd70d2287e23e7136299ec851b7\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cassette.sphdigital.com.sg\/image\/straitstimes\/60ce0b2ea19bf01483b2d6179e4726384df98dd70d2287e23e7136299ec851b7\" alt=\"\" class=\"aspect-portrait flex items-start shrink-0 portrait article-portrait object-contain mobile:w-auto tablet:w-auto\" data-testid=\"image-test-id\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/picture><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/figure>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The love scam victim <!-- -->alerted the police<!-- --> on July 4 that year, and Pranesh was arrested on July 16, <!-- -->2025<!-- -->.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">In mitigation, defence lawyer Jeyabal Athavan told the court his client was not the mastermind behind the offences and had not received any remuneration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The lawyer added that Pranesh was not aware of the full extent of the offences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Pranesh\u2019s bail was set at $20,000, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Oct 1.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/singapore\/courts-crime\/jail-for-man-who-had-firm-opened-in-his-name-its-bank-account-got-over-372k-in-scam-proceeds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SINGAPORE \u2013 A Singapore Armed Forces regular has been given a jail sentence after he agreed to help a woman incorporate a company, and had&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}