On 16 December 2024, 57-year-old Kam Boon Hee Kenneth ("Kam") was sentenced to five years and 60 months' imprisonment for deceiving members of the public into extending loans totaling approximately $5 million. Kam was convicted on 26 August 2024 for 63 charges of cheating under Section 420 of the Penal Code following 18 days of trial.
Background
Kam was the director of several companies, including Kenn Capital Pte Ltd, Kenn Organisation International Pte Ltd and Kenneth Kam Pte Ltd. He was first charged in Court on 10 March 2020, and was subsequently handed further charges on 6 October 2020 and 18 February 2021. In total, he was charged with 340 cheating charges involving amounts of more than $16 million and four charges of transferring benefits from his criminal conduct under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
The trial proceeded on 63 counts of cheating involving 13 victims who had lent money to Kam, while the remaining charges were stood down.
The Court found that Kam had falsely represented himself as a successful forex trader and had misled victims into granting him loans. He had claimed to have generated high profits from his trading, giving victims the impression that he was capable of paying an attractive monthly interest rate of 3% that he promised in return for their loans. On this basis, the victims lent money to Kam for him to trade in forex in order to generate profits. In reality, Kam had been running a Ponzi scheme, and had funded the 3% monthly interest payments to lenders with money borrowed from other members of the public.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
16 December 2024 @ 12:30 PM