On 31 March 2015 morning, in State Court no. 26, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) has preferred 9 charges under section 420 read with 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224 – Abetment by Conspiracy to Cheat – against Mohammed Lutfi Bin Hussin, a practicing lawyer with his own firm, Lutfi Law Corporation.
Background of Case
On 23 August 2007, CAD investigated into a complaint lodged by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC Bank). The complaint pertains to housing loans alleged to have been disbursed based on false information in the loan application forms and forged income documents. Our investigations revealed that a former mobile banking executive with OCBC Bank, Winnie Goh Li Ching (“Winnie Goh”) had conspired with real estate agents to submit income documents with inflated income information to cheat the bank into disbursing mortgage loans. More than $62 million in loans were disbursed through the deception.
Winnie Goh’s involvement across 6 different major property loan scams started at different times during the period between 2004 and 2005. In view of the complexity of the case and the sheer number of suspects involved, AGC decided in 2009 that prosecution would be conducted in 6 phases – comprising 6 different groups of real estate agents, of which 12 of them were identified as the primary perpetrators.
Between 2011 and 2015, all the 12 real estate agents and Winnie Goh were prosecuted in Court for multiple offences of Cheating, Abetment by Conspiracy to Cheat, and Forgery for the Purpose of Cheating. No further action were taken against some of the real estate agents who had played a secondary role in the scam.
Mohammed Lutfi Bin Hussin is the last person to be charged in this fraud against OCBC Bank.
Investigations revealed that Mohammed Lutfi Bin Hussin was implicated in some of the conveyancing transactions involving inflated purchase prices submitted to OCBC Bank. Mohamed Lutfi Bin Hussin had acted in the conveyancing transactions for 9 properties referred to his law firm by Mohammad Sauki Bin Mawadi (Mohammad Sauki), a former real estate agent with PropNex – who was one of the 12 real estate agents that conspired with Winnie Goh. Mohammad Sauki’s clients purchased properties through him and would submit inflated income documents in order to obtain higher loans from the bank. The excess money would be disbursed through Mohammed Lufti’s law firm back to the buyers in the form of cash backs. The amount of cashback involved totalled $655,192.29.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
31 March 2015 @ 2:50 PM