Jail for woman, 56, who helped son get S$1.1 million property loan via impersonation, forgery

SINGAPORE — A woman took part in her oldest son's get-rich-quick schemes to cheat financial companies into disbursing corporate loans and to impersonate a company director in order to take up a housing loan of S$1.1million.

Separately, she cheated someone of S$6,000 by pretending to be a money changer.

Sim Seok Kuan, 56, was sentenced to 52 months' jail — slightly more than four years —after pleading guilty to seven charges on Thursday (June 1): Six for loan frauds where she forged financial documents, and one for cheating.

She was the fourth person to be sentenced after her son and two other accomplices were sentenced in 2021 for their roles in the loan frauds.

FORGING FINANCIAL DOCUMENTS

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Tan Pei Wei told the court that sometime around December 2018, Sim owed debts to several finance companies for which her oldest son Khor Choon Kiat had acted as guarantor.

It was then that Khor, who was in his early 20s, hatched a scheme to get quick cash by making fraudulent applications to finance companies that were offering loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

He recruited two other people, Yeo Hwa Piao and Foo Wei Lee, to join him and his mother in setting up a fraudulent company called Foosball Strikers.

Together, they applied to at least four finance companies for corporate loans, falsely stating that the money will be used for business purposes.

They also forged documents to prove that Foosball Strikers had ongoing business activities and were creditworthy.

In her role, Sim helped Khor to forge an income tax assessment notice from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) for use in a fraudulent loan application for S$50,000 to North Star Capital. She also forged bank statements for submission to Finaxar Capital 1 in order to apply for a S$60,000 business loan.

The money that was collected from both companies were indicated by Khor to have been shared among the four of them.

Under the instructions of Khor, his mother was asked around December 2019 to use a computer to make six false bank statements under Maybank and one consumer credit report from the Consumer Bureau of Singapore for Foosball Strikers.

Sim made the documents with the purpose of deceiving finance companies into believing that Foosball Strikers was creditworthy and thereby granting the loans, DPP Tan said.

Sim also helped her son to create 11 false documents for a corporate loan under an existing company named Catsmart.

IMPERSONATING COMPANY DIRECTOR

Around July 2019, Khor came up with another idea to apply for a fraudulent loan secured on a property belonging to others so that they could obtain a larger sum.

He shared this idea with his mother and Foo who later recruited property agent Yan Mun Wai. The agent advised them to rent a property with high market value and belonging to owners with good credit profiles.

They eventually settled on using an existing company named Superstar Mover, which had been incorporated sometime in 2011.

Its principal business activity was the provision of moving services though it was dormant and had no ongoing activities when Khor hatched his scheme.

As part of her role, his mother impersonated one of the directors of Superstar Mover to open a corporate bank account in the company's name for the purposes of receiving the loan money. 

On Aug 1 in 2019, his mother met with a representative from Maybank at Hougang Mall and a corporate bank account was opened in Superstar Mover's name.

Acting on Khor's instructions, his mother then made several false documents that were required for a property loan application with Ethoz.

These forged documents were:

• Four notices of assessment from Iras dated 2018 and 2019
• A property tax bill dated Dec 17, 2018
• Six Maybank bank statements for Superstar Mover's bank account from February to August 2019
• One Consumer Bureau of Singapore’s consumer credit report

Khor then sent the application to Ethoz and was granted the S$1.1 million loan.

However, before the money could be transferred, Khor and Foo were arrested. 

Khor, his mother and Foo also tried to make a fraudulent application with Ghin Services for a business expansion loan of S$100,000 but this was not approved.

CHEATING MONEY

Before she got involved with the loan frauds, Sim tricked someone into believing that she was a money changer. 

Sim told the person that she could change Singapore dollar notes to Malaysian ringgit at better-than-normal rates at the time, offering RM3.15 for S$1.

They arranged to meet at his workplace where he gave her S$6,000 to exchange the currencies.

Upon receiving the money, Sim told him that she would give him the ringgit equivalent within three days.

However, she did not exchange the money and used it to pay off her personal debts instead.

To this day, no restitution has been made.

In seeking a lighter sentence of 44 months for Sim, defence lawyer Caryn Lee from IRB Law LLP highlighted that her client's culpability was "lower" than that of the other accomplices because Sim's main role was in relation to forging documents.

Ms Lee added that even though Sim knew that it was wrong, she still did it anyway "out of love" for her son, because she "always had a soft spot for him".

She urged Principal District Judge Toh Han Li to consider that Sim was merely an "indifferent back-seat passenger" who did not give her view and should therefore be punished less severely since she was not involved in the planning and discussion of these schemes.

In response to the defence, DPP Tan agreed that Sim's culpability was the lowest, but she still played a "vital role" in forging the documents that were required and an appropriate sentence for her should be imposed on par with the other co-accused persons.

Anyone found guilty of committing forgery for the purpose of cheating can be jailed up to 10 years and fined.

For committing criminal breach of trust, an offender can be jailed up to seven years or fined, or both.