SINGAPORE: A Chinese national came to Singapore on a fraudulent work pass and found a job performing tasks for a criminal syndicate. He handled S$11.6 million (US$9.2 million) for the organisation and set up a bungalow for three hackers, also from China, to use as a base.
Chen Yiren, 44, was sentenced to about 22 months' jail and given a fine of S$8,000 on Wednesday (Feb 25).
He pleaded guilty to four charges which included receiving money used by a syndicate to facilitate offences, making a false statement in a work permit application, and working as a housekeeper without a valid work pass.
Another seven charges were considered in sentencing.
The court heard that Chen paid an agent in China sometime before 2022 for help in applying for a work permit in Singapore.
He managed to obtain a work permit under Kowata Engineering & Construction as a process maintenance and construction worker, and came to Singapore in June 2022.
Although he attended some training for the job, he did not work for the company but instead looked for his own work.
He was introduced to 38-year-old Ni-Vanuatu citizen Xu Liangbiao, who is now wanted for suspected money laundering linked to a billion-dollar money laundering case that broke in August 2023.
Xu left Singapore a day before arrests were made on Aug 15, 2023 and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Xu told Chen that he had rented a property at 48B Jalan Kampong Chantek in Bukit Timah and needed help to furnish it, offering to pay Chen.
Chen agreed, and began assisting Xu with various errands in exchange for an initial monthly salary of 20,000 yuan (S$3,674) that later increased to 30,000 yuan.
Among his duties, Chen collected money on Xu's behalf at the house at Jalan Kampong Chantek through delivery riders dispatched from moneychangers.
For authentication, the delivery riders would check against a photo of a dollar note Chen showed them with a specific serial number.
Between late 2022 and Sep 9, 2024, Chen received almost S$11.6 million in total over 23 occasions under Xu's directions.
Although Chen found it suspicious that he was asked to receive such large amounts of money in cash - the largest single sum was over S$1.3 million - he saw himself as merely Xu's worker and did not ask him about it.
On Xu's directions, Chen spent about S$2.49 million on the monthly rentals of various properties, which Xu intended to use as residences and bases for himself and other accomplices for criminal activity.
These properties included an apartment at Fraser Suites in River Valley Road with a monthly rental of S$11,000, a bungalow at Jalan Lim Tai See in the Holland area for a rental of S$17,000 per month and a bungalow at Mount Sinai which cost S$33,000 per month to rent.
Chen also used some of the money to hire a driver for himself and to subscribe to a broadband service at Mount Sinai.
The prosecution said Xu was known to be interested in maintaining overseas gambling websites to earn money. He invited three Chinese men to Singapore intending to employ them as hackers to obtain personal data so he could send targeted advertisements for gambling websites.
The three intended hackers, Yan Peijian, Huang Qinzheng and Liu Yuqi, came to Singapore sometime around September 2022 at Xu's invitation.
Xu asked Chen to help look for accommodation for them, and Chen rented the Mount Sinai bungalow, with the trio moving in around Nov 1, 2023.
Chen then essentially acted as a housekeeper by supporting the three hackers' living expenses from the money Xu sent him, paying for rental, arranging for moonlighting foreign workers to cook and clean there and settling the broadband connection.
Chen also helped Xu safekeep a collection of liquor, including vintage editions of The Macallan whisky, Maotai and Martel liquors and red wines.
After Xu fled Singapore, he gave Chen instructions to have the liquor transferred to a facility for safekeeping.
Chen knew the collection was valuable, and he also knew that these instructions came shortly after news broke of the arrest of 10 Chinese nationals for money laundering.
Despite this, he engaged movers to move about 40 crates of liquor to a storage facility in Changi.
Xu's collection of liquor was later seized and found to consist of 414 bottles with a total value of at least S$7 million.
Around April 2024, Chen's work pass came up for renewal and he successfully
In September 2024, Chen received a call from his property agent, saying there were many policemen at the Mount Sinai home.
Knowing that the hackers could be in trouble, Chen tried to leave Singapore for Kuala Lumpur, but was stopped at Woodlands Checkpoint.
He was arrested and various devices, a Toyota Alphard and cash including S$14,250 were seized from him.
The prosecution sought at least 24 months and four weeks' jail and a fine of S$8,000 for Chen.
Although the syndicate did not directly target Singapore, avoiding targeting Singapore websites and government websites, there was reputational damage to the country as it was the hub of the group's illegal activities, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Shaun Lim.
Foreign government-related data was found on the hackers' devices, despite the fact that they claimed to have avoided targeting government websites, said Mr Lim.
He said the amount handled by Chen was very large and was a significant amount of resources handled on behalf of the syndicate, as could be seen from their ability to rent multiple properties to live in and use as operational bases.
Chen played a key role in the group, as he was effectively a paymaster or an agent making arrangements on Xu's behalf, said Mr Lim.
While Chen was not privy to the exact details of the syndicate's operations, this was directly attributable to his "wilful blindness", since he was well aware that Xu might be engaging in illegal activity but chose not to question him for fear of losing a lucrative situation, said Mr Lim.
Chen had offended over almost two years, he added.
Chen's lawyer, Mr Kenrick Lam from Templars Law, sought 14 months and four weeks' jail instead, with a fine of S$7,000 to S$8,000.
He said Chen was merely a follower in the broader scheme of the syndicate's operations, without any control or decision-making authority.
The three hackers played a more significant and substantive role, argued the lawyer.
Chen did not have any direct involvement in the core criminal conduct of the syndicate, and any benefits he gained were "vastly disproportionate to the amount involved" in the current offences, said Mr Lam.
The three hackers were given more than 28 months' jail each at earlier hearings.
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Chen Yiren, 44, was sentenced to about 22 months' jail and given a fine of S$8,000 on Wednesday (Feb 25).
He pleaded guilty to four charges which included receiving money used by a syndicate to facilitate offences, making a false statement in a work permit application, and working as a housekeeper without a valid work pass.
Another seven charges were considered in sentencing.
THE CASE
The court heard that Chen paid an agent in China sometime before 2022 for help in applying for a work permit in Singapore.
He managed to obtain a work permit under Kowata Engineering & Construction as a process maintenance and construction worker, and came to Singapore in June 2022.
Although he attended some training for the job, he did not work for the company but instead looked for his own work.
He was introduced to 38-year-old Ni-Vanuatu citizen Xu Liangbiao, who is now wanted for suspected money laundering linked to a billion-dollar money laundering case that broke in August 2023.
Xu left Singapore a day before arrests were made on Aug 15, 2023 and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Xu told Chen that he had rented a property at 48B Jalan Kampong Chantek in Bukit Timah and needed help to furnish it, offering to pay Chen.
Chen agreed, and began assisting Xu with various errands in exchange for an initial monthly salary of 20,000 yuan (S$3,674) that later increased to 30,000 yuan.
Among his duties, Chen collected money on Xu's behalf at the house at Jalan Kampong Chantek through delivery riders dispatched from moneychangers.
For authentication, the delivery riders would check against a photo of a dollar note Chen showed them with a specific serial number.
Between late 2022 and Sep 9, 2024, Chen received almost S$11.6 million in total over 23 occasions under Xu's directions.
Although Chen found it suspicious that he was asked to receive such large amounts of money in cash - the largest single sum was over S$1.3 million - he saw himself as merely Xu's worker and did not ask him about it.
On Xu's directions, Chen spent about S$2.49 million on the monthly rentals of various properties, which Xu intended to use as residences and bases for himself and other accomplices for criminal activity.
These properties included an apartment at Fraser Suites in River Valley Road with a monthly rental of S$11,000, a bungalow at Jalan Lim Tai See in the Holland area for a rental of S$17,000 per month and a bungalow at Mount Sinai which cost S$33,000 per month to rent.
Chen also used some of the money to hire a driver for himself and to subscribe to a broadband service at Mount Sinai.
THE HACKERS' BUNGALOW
The prosecution said Xu was known to be interested in maintaining overseas gambling websites to earn money. He invited three Chinese men to Singapore intending to employ them as hackers to obtain personal data so he could send targeted advertisements for gambling websites.
The three intended hackers, Yan Peijian, Huang Qinzheng and Liu Yuqi, came to Singapore sometime around September 2022 at Xu's invitation.
Xu asked Chen to help look for accommodation for them, and Chen rented the Mount Sinai bungalow, with the trio moving in around Nov 1, 2023.
Chen then essentially acted as a housekeeper by supporting the three hackers' living expenses from the money Xu sent him, paying for rental, arranging for moonlighting foreign workers to cook and clean there and settling the broadband connection.
Chen also helped Xu safekeep a collection of liquor, including vintage editions of The Macallan whisky, Maotai and Martel liquors and red wines.
After Xu fled Singapore, he gave Chen instructions to have the liquor transferred to a facility for safekeeping.
Chen knew the collection was valuable, and he also knew that these instructions came shortly after news broke of the arrest of 10 Chinese nationals for money laundering.
Despite this, he engaged movers to move about 40 crates of liquor to a storage facility in Changi.
Xu's collection of liquor was later seized and found to consist of 414 bottles with a total value of at least S$7 million.
Around April 2024, Chen's work pass came up for renewal and he successfully
In September 2024, Chen received a call from his property agent, saying there were many policemen at the Mount Sinai home.
Knowing that the hackers could be in trouble, Chen tried to leave Singapore for Kuala Lumpur, but was stopped at Woodlands Checkpoint.
He was arrested and various devices, a Toyota Alphard and cash including S$14,250 were seized from him.
SENTENCING ARGUMENTS
The prosecution sought at least 24 months and four weeks' jail and a fine of S$8,000 for Chen.
Although the syndicate did not directly target Singapore, avoiding targeting Singapore websites and government websites, there was reputational damage to the country as it was the hub of the group's illegal activities, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Shaun Lim.
Foreign government-related data was found on the hackers' devices, despite the fact that they claimed to have avoided targeting government websites, said Mr Lim.
He said the amount handled by Chen was very large and was a significant amount of resources handled on behalf of the syndicate, as could be seen from their ability to rent multiple properties to live in and use as operational bases.
Chen played a key role in the group, as he was effectively a paymaster or an agent making arrangements on Xu's behalf, said Mr Lim.
While Chen was not privy to the exact details of the syndicate's operations, this was directly attributable to his "wilful blindness", since he was well aware that Xu might be engaging in illegal activity but chose not to question him for fear of losing a lucrative situation, said Mr Lim.
Chen had offended over almost two years, he added.
Chen's lawyer, Mr Kenrick Lam from Templars Law, sought 14 months and four weeks' jail instead, with a fine of S$7,000 to S$8,000.
He said Chen was merely a follower in the broader scheme of the syndicate's operations, without any control or decision-making authority.
The three hackers played a more significant and substantive role, argued the lawyer.
Chen did not have any direct involvement in the core criminal conduct of the syndicate, and any benefits he gained were "vastly disproportionate to the amount involved" in the current offences, said Mr Lam.
The three hackers were given more than 28 months' jail each at earlier hearings.
Continue reading...