Hawker worked with woman he met at MLM seminar to cheat banks of $1.2m

SINGAPORE — By using false statements, a man worked with a female accomplice to dupe two banks into disbursing loans totalling $1,218,000 starting in 2014.

According to court documents, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) (Singapore) was cheated of $178,000, while Maybank (Singapore) was cheated of the remaining $1.04 million.

Lee Beng Yong, 55, who is also known as Muhammad Zaki Lee, was earlier convicted of six counts of cheating. One of the charges involved SCB, while five were linked to Maybank.

On Tuesday (Oct 15), Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Cheah Wenjie urged the court to sentence Lee to up to five years and six months' jail, stressing that the offender had made no restitution.

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DPP Cheah also told District Judge Marvin Bay that based on the proceeded charges, the banks suffered more than $1 million in losses.

Defence lawyer Joshua Tong pleaded for Lee to be given a year and two months' jail, adding that there was no evidence that his client was involved in making the false documents.

Tong told the court that Lee's accomplice, Tan You Jia, also known as Gina, had taken all the ill-gotten gains, while Lee, who acted like her employee, was paid $5,000.

Tan, then 50, was sentenced to 4.5 years' jail in March 2021.

DPP Cheah said in his submissions that the two offenders took part in a ruse called "Roll & Roll", in which companies were used to apply for loans without any intention to conduct genuine business operations.

He added: "Instead, the companies were used to secure bank loans using forged documents, with the companies then making minimal repayments to maintain creditworthiness, and then obtaining another loan, akin to a Ponzi scheme."

The prosecutor told Judge Bay that in 2013, Lee worked as a hawker at various places, including his wife's stall in Clementi.

He met Tan during a multi-level marketing seminar, Surewin4you, that year and the pair kept in touch with each other.

Tan later asked Lee to work with her in a business she called "Roll & Roll" or "R&R", which referred to the taking of bank loans using nominee directors.

In 2013, a woman called Grace Tan met Tan at a networking seminar and they remained in contact.

Tan later asked Grace Tan to take over a dormant company. She also told Grace Tan that she could help her earn money through this firm.

Grace Tan agreed to be part of the plan and Tan told her to go to an office at International Plaza in Anson Road to sign some documents to take over the dormant company.

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Lee then accompanied Grace Tan to a corporate secretarial firm.

After performing the necessary paperwork, Grace Tan became the sole director and shareholder of a company called Natsal, which was eventually renamed Gervin International.

Some time on or around April 12, 2014, Grace Tan, on Tan's instructions, and opened a commercial account with OCBC Bank for Gervin International.

Grace Tan also applied for two cheque books and passed one of them to Lee. He met her later so that she could sign on the blank cheques.

Some time before Aug 1 that year, Maybank received a business term loan application from Gervin International.

This application came with false documents, including forged OCBC statements purporting to be Gervin International's bank account statements for the period between January 2014 and June 2014.

Maybank, believing that the forged bank statements were genuine, generated a letter of offer dated Aug 1, 2014, to lend Gervin International $190,000. About a week later, the amount was disbursed into the company's bank account.

Lee then encashed six of Gervin International's bank cheques. He claimed that the monies were used for purposes including purchasing other companies.

He also claimed that the remainder went to Tan.

The DPP said: "Gervin made instalment payments for the... loan from September to November 2014, and again in January 2015, before defaulting on the loan thereafter.

"Grace was subsequently brought to court after the... loan could not be repaid, and [she was] declared a bankrupt."

According to court documents, the offenders also roped in other individuals to act as directors of other firms before duping Maybank and SCB of the remaining amount.

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These other companies were Mansarover Import & Export, Bestcare, Juf Malsing Impex and Ottimo Group.

The DPP said: "It was undisputed that the five companies had no genuine commercial business at all material times. Each director gave unchallenged testimonies that they did not operate any business with the companies that they had taken over.

"Gina's evidence that she never conducted any businesses using the five companies likewise went undisputed. Under cross-examination, (Lee) agreed that the five companies had no genuine commercial business at all material times."

During the trial, Lee claimed that he was not part of a conspiracy with Tan to cheat banks, and that he had been kept in the dark about the true nature of his actions throughout his involvement with her.

He will be sentenced in November.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.