Man charged over illegal cross-border money transfer business involving over S$2.4 million
At least 75,050 pounds were scam proceeds from victims in Germany.
A view of the State Courts building in Singapore. (File photo: CNA/Koh Wan Ting)
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SINGAPORE: A man was charged on Thursday (Dec 4) with running an unlicensed cross-border money transfer business that received more than 1.4 million British pounds (S$2.4 million) from overseas accounts.
Sean Koh Chao Lun, a 34-year-old Singaporean, allegedly did not attempt to establish the source of these funds, and at least 75,050 pounds were scam proceeds from victims in Germany.
Koh was handed one count under the Payment Services Act of carrying on a cross-border money transfer service without a licence between May and June in 2022.
The police said in a statement that Koh was previously a director of a local company that has since been struck off by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority as of Mar 4, 2024.
Koh opened an account with Wise Asia Pacific under the company's name, for the purpose of "overseas remittance", police said their preliminary investigations revealed.
Koh purportedly engaged in the buying and selling of cryptocurrency, primarily USDT, and advertised his services on cryptocurrency platforms such as Binance and Huobi.
Interested buyers would transfer fiat currency to the company's Wise account.
Koh allegedly transferred these funds to his local bank account before transferring them to other local bank accounts as payments for the purchase of USDT from other cryptocurrency sellers.
His case was adjourned to January.
If convicted of carrying on a cross-border money transfer service without a licence under the Payment Services Act, he could be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$125,000 or both.
