The transactions allegedly arose from posts in a WeChat group advertising remittance services that promise good exchange rates. - Reuters
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): From April to December last year, a 47-year-old woman allegedly ran an illegal remittance scheme via WeChat, through which she received more than S$214,000 from four people in Singapore.
Li Fengli was charged on April 5 for allegedly carrying on a business of providing unlicensed cross-border money transfer services and for fraudulently using as genuine forged electronic records, the police said on Tuesday (April 11).
Li purportedly used the alias “Meizi” when allegedly accepting the money from four remitters in Singapore, to be transferred to bank accounts of persons in China. She did not have a licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to do so.
The transactions allegedly arose from posts in a WeChat group advertising remittance services that promise good exchange rates.
Those convicted of providing unlicensed cross-border money transfer services can be fined up to $125,000, or jailed up to three years, or both.
Li is also alleged to have knowingly provided two of the remitters with forged electronic images of receipts purportedly issued by Zhongguo Remittance Private Limited.
The offence of using as genuine a forged electronic record carries an imprisonment term of up to four years, a fine, or both.
The police advised the public to remit funds out of Singapore through licensed banks or payment service providers to avoid the risk of funds being lost, misappropriated or being used for money laundering or terrorist financing.
Unlicensed payment service operators are not regulated or subjected to strict anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing measures.
