On 6 April 2021, a money mule was convicted and sentenced for her involvement in money laundering offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, Chapter 65A (“CDSA”).
The money mule had received and transferred monies on behalf of her online lover named “Kevin Foster”. In order to facilitate the transfer of monies, the money mule opened bank accounts with Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (“OCBC”), Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”), Malayan Banking Berhad (“Maybank”), Commerce International Merchant Bankers Berhad (“CIMB”) and United Overseas Bank (“UOB”) on the instructions of “Kevin Foster” and sent the ATM cards for the Maybank and CIMB accounts to an address in Malaysia provided by him.
Between December 2015 and January 2017, the money mule received a total sum of more than S$730,000 in criminal proceeds into her various bank accounts. After receiving the criminal proceeds, the money mule handled the monies through various methods:
- Withdraw the monies as cash and thereafter:
i. Deposit them into bank accounts designated by “Kevin Foster”
ii. Hand them over to “Kevin Foster” or his business partners
iii. Transfer through remittance agencies including Western Union or Moneygram to designated recipients
- Transfer the monies to her CIMB or Maybank accounts to allow “Kevin Foster” or his business partners to withdraw monies in Malaysia.
The money mule admitted that she had suspicions about the monies since receiving calls from the banks in 2014 questioning the transactions in her bank accounts. Despite having these suspicions, she continued to help “Kevin Foster” to receive and transfer the monies.
The money mule was sentenced to 43 months’ imprisonment for two counts of possessing criminal proceeds under Section 47(3) of the CDSA and one count of transferring benefits of criminal conduct under Section 47(2)(b) of the CDSA. Three other charges under the CDSA were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
07 April 2021 @ 9:35 PM