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On 31 October 2025, 39-year-old Ng Mann Shin (“Ng”) was sentenced to an imprisonment term of six years and three months for the following offences:

• Two counts of committing criminal breach of trust by employee under Section 408(1) of the Penal Code (Cap. 224, 2008 Rev. Ed.) (“Penal Code”) read with Section 124(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 (“CPC”); 
  
• One count of using property which directly represented benefits from criminal conduct under Section 47(1)(c) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (Cap. 64A, 2000 Rev. Ed.) (“CDSA”) read with Section 124(2) of the CPC;
  
• One count of transferring property which directly represented benefits from criminal conduct under Section 47(1)(b) of the CDSA read with Section 124(2) of the CPC; and
  
• One count of falsifying electronic records under Section 477A of the Penal Code read with Section 124(4) of the CPC.

Another 18 charges of committing criminal breach of trust by employee, converting, using and transferring property which directly represented benefits from criminal conduct, and falsifying and destroying electronic records were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.

Investigation findings

Background

Ng was employed as the accountant and finance officer for the following five companies (collectively referred to as the “Five Companies”):

1. Mr Shopper Studio Pte Ltd (“Mr Shopper Studio”);
   
2. Archluxe Pte Ltd (“Archluxe”);
   
3. Nativ9 Concept Private Limited;
   
4. REDO Styling Pte Ltd (formerly known as MSS Home Styling Pte Ltd); and
   
5. MSS Design & Build Pte Ltd.

Ng had access to the internet banking tokens for the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (“OCBC”) accounts of the Five Companies and Xero, the accounting software used by the Five Companies. At the end of each month, Ng received invoices and payment vouchers to process payments to the suppliers or contractors via bank transfers. 

How Ng committed the acts of Criminal Breach of Trust

Investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department ("CAD") revealed that sometime from July 2019, Ng made unauthorised transfers from the Five Companies’ accounts to her own POSB account. She disguised these transfers as legitimate supplier payments by temporarily changing her PayNow name to match the suppliers' names on payment vouchers. After making the transfers to herself, the accused changed her Paynow name back to her own.  Two to three days after making each unauthorized transfer, Ng then made the legitimate payments due to the actual suppliers.  Between 9 July 2019 and 31 August 2021, Ng made a total of 224 unauthorised transactions amounting to $1,212,218.88 from the OCBC accounts of the Five Companies to her personal POSB account. 

Falsification of records

The OCBC bank statements of the Five Companies were linked to Xero, an accounting software, in real time. During the bank reconciliation process, Xero would automatically flag out the transactions in the bank statements which do not match the accounting records. Between 4 February 2020 and 31 August 2021, Ng manually created 215 false entries in Xero to incorrectly state that the amounts were paid to the suppliers/contractors, when they were in fact paid to Ng’s POSB account. After Ng created these false entries, the accounting records in Xero would then reconcile with the bank statements. Ng did so to conceal her misappropriation and to prevent others from detecting her wrongdoing. 

Significant expenditure funded by misappropriated monies

CAD’s investigations revealed that Ng spent some of the misappropriated monies in the following ways:

1. $288,995.94 for the purchase of in-game credits for mobile phone games on 2,837 occasions.
   
2. $238,588.36 to purchase Feng Shui items, household and electronic products, supplements and gaming credits.
   
3. $169,200.62 on her family, insurance expenses, tuition fees, retail purchases and loan repayments. 
   
4. $91,648.12 to purchase luxury goods (bags, shoes, clothing) from retailers such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci. 
   
5. $68,202.51 to repay multiple bank and renovation loans and medical bills. Ng also transferred some monies to her accounting company for corporate expenses. 

Under the Penal Code, the offence of criminal breach of trust by employees carries a punishment with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 15 years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Under the CDSA, the offence of converting, transferring or using property which directly represented benefits from criminal conduct, carries a punishment with imprisonment for a term which not exceeding 10 years, or a fine not exceeding $500,000, or to both.

Under the Penal Code, the offence of falsification of accounts carries a punishment with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 10 years, or with fine, or with both.