‘Credits for sex’ accused faces tougher charges
Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE — Criminal charges against the first man to be charged here for his part in a “credits for sex” scam have been amended to fall under a more severe statute, while fresh charges were also pressed against him.
Liew Yii Tern, 22, who was first hauled to court on June 18, now faces eight counts of knowingly facilitating the criminal conduct of someone called “Lao Ban”, or “boss” in Mandarin.
The offence falls under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (CDSA), and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail and/or S$500,000 fine.
He was initially charged with abetting to cheat under the Penal Code, which carries a punishment of up to 10 years’ jail and a fine.
Liew’s amended charges also indicate that a larger amount was allegedly scammed from victims, who are typically duped into buying online shopping credits or purchasing cards, which are stored value cards used to make payments on websites for the promise of a date or sexual services.
He is accused of allowing his bank account to be used to receive S$82,500 from one victim, more than double the amount stated (S$38,600) when he was first charged.
On four other occasions, Liew purportedly picked up the ATM cards of four men, whose accounts were used to receive about S$31,750. Liew then converted these amounts to points under Alipay, a popular online payment service in China. Three of these are new charges. Another three of his charges were for collecting ATM cards from three men to facilitate Lao Ban’s criminal engagements. Two of these are new charges.
Liew is believed to be part of a syndicate running a racket that has recently gained notoriety in Singapore and other countries such as the United States and China.
In the first five months of this year, more than 500 police reports on such scams have been lodged in Singapore, with victims losing more than S$1.25 million.
Liew is out on S$150,000 bail and will be back in court on July 23.
In an effort to stifle transnational money-laundering activities, the CSDA was amended last July to allow the Government to deal more swiftly with criminal operations and deprive perpetrators of illicit gains. Changes include raising the maximum penalty for money laundering from seven to 10 years in jail, and lowering the threshold for cross-border cash reporting by a third.
Amendments also made it easier to investigate and prosecute foreign predicate offences. For instance, instead of having to first obtain a certificate from a foreign country establishing the offence, enforcement agencies here can now accept other evidence such as court judgments and experts’ statements.
