On 8 July 2025, a 40-year-old man, Lim Zhi Wei (“Lim”) was convicted of, amongst others, the following charges, and sentenced to 13 months’ imprisonment and fined $2,400 for these charges:
- one charge of being concerned in an arrangement to facilitate another person’s control of benefits from criminal conduct under section 51(1)(a) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Offences (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 (the “CDSA”); and
- one charge of abetting another person to knowingly cause a computer to perform any function for the purpose of securing access without authority to the program under section 3(1) read with section 12 of the Computer Misuse Act 1993 (“CMA”).
Case Details
Investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department (“CAD”) revealed that sometime in December 2022, Lim came across an offer advertised by an unknown person on an unidentified Telegram group chat that offered to pay him a monthly fee of $500 for the use of his bank account.
Despite having reason to believe that his bank account would be used for, amongst others, receipt of deposits derived from illegal remote gambling activities, Lim proceeded to accept the job offer. Following this, Lim proceeded to disclose the login information for the internet banking facilities linked to his POSB account to the unknown person.
Between January and February 2023, Lim’s POSB bank account received $436,532.47 through 1,095 deposits. In total, Lim received $1,000 for giving up control of his POSB bank account.
Under Section 51(1)(a) of the CDSA, a person who enters into or is otherwise concerned in an arrangement, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that, by the arrangement, the retention or control by or on behalf of that other person’s benefits of criminal conduct is facilitated, and knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that that other person is a person who engages in or has engaged in criminal conduct or has benefited from criminal conduct shall be liable on conviction, to a fine not exceeding $500,000, imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or both.
Under Section 3(1) read with Section 12(1) of the CMA, any person who abets another person’s unauthorised access to any computer program shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both; and in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both.
The Police takes a serious stance against any person involved in laundering proceeds of crime, and offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law. Individuals are advised to be cautious of giving up access over their bank accounts to others in exchange for monetary benefits. To avoid becoming involved in money laundering activities, members of the public should refrain from allowing their bank accounts to be used for receiving or transferring money for others. They should also be wary of seemingly attractive money-making opportunities promising fast and easy pay-outs for the use of their bank accounts. Anyone who allows their personal bank accounts to be used to receive and transfer money for others will be held accountable if these transactions are linked to crimes.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
08 July 2025 @ 2:55 PM