Six to be charged for allowing criminals to use their bank accounts
The accounts facilitated money transfers of nearly S$8 million by criminal syndicate
SIX individuals will be charged in court on Monday (Nov 4) for relinquishing their bank accounts, which were used by a criminal syndicate to facilitate the movement of large amounts of money.
In a statement on Sunday, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said the six comprise three men and three women, but it did not elaborate on their ages or nationality.
The six opened new bank accounts and gave the details to a criminal syndicate in return for a monthly payment. Between September 2022 and May 2023, the accounts were used to move almost S$8 million.
They will be charged with abetment of cheating, abetting unauthorised access to computer material, assisting another to retain benefits from criminal conduct, and registering a shell company, among other offences.
Four of these people were also allegedly assisting in money laundering and will face additional charges for transferring of benefits from criminal conduct.
One of the four acted as a recruiter, bringing three of the others into the scheme, and provided false information to an investigation officer.
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The six suspects are being charged in connection with a series of banking-related malware crimes, where eight people were arrested in June 2023 for involvement in banking-related malware crimes reported in Singapore between May and June 2023.
In that case, SPF had received reports of malware being used to compromise mobile devices, which resulted in unauthorised transactions from bank accounts, even though the victims did not divulge their one-time passwords.
One of the eight will also face additional charges in court on Nov 4. He acted as the “middle manager” in the syndicate, recruiting members and instructing others to recruit more people who would relinquish their bank accounts.
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He allegedly passed instructions from the criminal syndicate to other members of the organised criminal group to perform cash withdrawals or fund transfers to facilitate money laundering.
The punishment for conspiring to cheat a bank into opening a bank account is imprisonment of up to three years, a fine, or both. Abetting unknown persons’ access to a bank’s computer system carries a fine of up to $5,000, an imprisonment term of up to two years, or both, for a first-time offender.
The transferring of benefits from criminal conduct – which includes helping others retain the benefits of criminal conduct by conversions or transfers – is punishable by a fine of up to S$500,000 or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both.
The punishment of acting as a member of a locally linked organised crime group is a fine of up to S$100,000 and imprisonment of up to five years, or both.
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