Joseph Schooling's former spokesman charged with cheating people of about S$87,000
SINGAPORE: A former spokesman for swimming star Joseph Schooling has been charged with cheating 21 people of about S$87,300 over a period of about two years.
Mohamed Hafidz Ja'afar, 38, was charged last Friday (Aug 27) for the alleged offences, which occurred between 2017 and 2019.
Court documents show Hafidz is alleged to have taken money from 13 people to buy tickets for the International Champions Cup (ICC) - a football tournament held in Singapore in 2019 involving popular European clubs.
Media reports at the time stated that the police were investigating a report that Hafidz did not deliver the tickets for a Manchester United-Inter Milan match held at the National Stadium on Jul 20, 2019.
Other charges involve cheating others out of money meant for tickets to a concert by Irish rock band U2, as well as shoes and other sporting goods.
The largest amount involved a woman allegedly transferring S$28,250 to Hafidz for an unspecified investment in May 2018.
Hafidz - a former marketing and communications director with the Singapore Swimming Association - was appointed as a representative for the Schooling family in 2016, after Joseph Schooling won Singapore’s first Olympic gold medal for the 100m butterfly.
He later also served as the manager for Swim Schooling - the Olympian’s swimming school. The Schoolings said in 2019 that he had been terminated from the role as of July that year.
