Woman jailed for providing unlicensed payment service using Bitcoin

SINGAPORE: A woman has been jailed for providing payment services without a licence - the first person to be convicted for such an offence.

Vivian Lange, 24, was convicted on Thursday (Jan 28) and sentenced to four weeks' jail, said the police and the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) in a joint press release.

Police investigations revealed that Lange had provided a digital payment token service by receiving at least 13 fraudulent fund transfers amounting to S$3,350 on Feb 27 and Feb 28. 

She then used the money to purchase Bitcoin, before transferring the cryptocurrency to multiple Bitcoin wallets. 

According to the police, the transactions were done on the instruction of an unknown person in return for a 10 per cent commission.

Lange claimed that she took up a part-time-job online, where her role was to receive money in her bank account, before depositing them into Bitcoin machines.

The money deposited in her account turned out to be proceeds of crime from victims of online scams.

"The woman does not have a licence to carry on a business of providing any types of payment services in Singapore and is not an exempt payment service provider under the Payment Service Act 2019," said the police.

Anyone found guilty for carrying on a business of providing payment services without a licence can be fined up to S$125,000, or jailed for up to three years, or both.