(Clockwise from top left) Mohamed Haron Hassan, Sufandi Ahmad, Kok Chiew Leong and Bijabahadur Rai Shree Kantrai are linked to a housing loan scam. - ST
SINGAPORE: A group of people worked together on a ruse which led to Maybank being duped into disbursing mortgage loans totalling more than $5.1 million in relation to the sale of two houses.
In a statement on Aug 20, the police said the bank incurred a loss of over $1.79 million on the two properties.
The fraud was eventually uncovered when nominee buyers linked to the ruse defaulted on the loans.
The prosecution said the sellers of two properties – one in Saraca Terrace near Yio Chu Kang Road and another in Woodgrove Walk near Woodlands Street 41 – had paid $764,000 in cashback.
According to court documents, one of the offenders, Bijabahadur Rai Shree Kantrai, 54, later directed the distribution of the money among his accomplices.
Sufandi Ahmad, 44, Kok Chiew Leong, 51, and Rai were involved in the case relating to the Saraca Terrace house, which involved a cashback payment of $300,000, said the prosecution.
The prosecution also said Sufandi, Rai, Mohamed Haron Hassan, 43, and Juma’at Johari, 44, worked together in the case linked to the Woodgrove Walk house. This involved a cashback payment of $464,000.
The offenders have made no restitution.
On Aug 20, Sufandi, who was not represented by a lawyer, was sentenced to 6½ years’ jail over two counts of cheating and five counts of using forged documents as original copies.
Rai, who was convicted of seven similar charges, was sentenced to 7½ years’ jail. He was represented by lawyers Wee Pan Lee and Low Chang Yong.
Kok was ordered to spend 4½ years behind bars after the court found him guilty of a cheating charge and two counts of using forged documents as original copies.
Haron and Juma’at were each convicted of one count of being part of a conspiracy linked to a transfer form for the Woodgrove Walk property with a false sale price. They were each sentenced to 10 weeks’ jail.
Lawyers Patrick Fernandez and Mohamed Arshad Mohamed Tahir represented the trio.
District Judge Soh Tze Bian had earlier convicted all five men of the charges against them after a trial.
Deputy public prosecutors Suhas Malhotra, Joseph Gwee and Matthew Choo stated in court documents that as part of the ruse, the sellers of the properties were convinced to inflate the price of the houses they were selling, as well as to pay “cashback” to the accused parties after these were sold.
For the case involving the Saraca Terrace property, Sufandi, Rai and Kok worked together to dupe Maybank into disbursing a mortgage loan of $2.32 million.
They had deceived the bank into believing that a man identified as Mohammad Naseeruddin Allamdin, who was dealt with in court earlier, had an annual income of $310,300 in 2013.
The trio also worked together to use as genuine documents that were forged, including a bogus Central Provident Fund statement in Naseeruddin’s name.
The DPPs said: “Naseeruddin was persuaded by Sufandi to put his name down as the buyer, and to apply for a mortgage loan for the purchase.
“Naseeruddin’s role was simply to lend his name to the transaction... He was not expected to pay for the house that was being bought in his name.”
A married couple wanted to sell the house in 2014 and engaged an agent who was told to sell it at $2 million and above. The agent later introduced one “Andi” to the male seller, who later identified the man as Sufandi.
The male seller, the agent, Sufandi and Kok had a meeting, and an offer was made by which the price stated on the conveyancing documents would be $2.9 million.
However, the seller would receive $2.3 million from the sale. The court heard that the seller agreed to this offer, and an option to purchase (OTP) dated March 15, 2014, was signed.
The prosecutors said: “(The seller) explained that when he received the OTP, (Naseeruddin’s particulars) were already filled up. (The seller) assumed that Naseeruddin and ‘Andi’ were the same person and Naseeruddin was the real legal name of ‘Andi’.”
The sale of the property was completed on April 22 that year.
The DPPs told the court that some time around the completion date, Kok visited the house and asked the seller to pay him $300,000, saying that the house was worth $2 million instead.
On April 25 that year, the seller handed the amount to Kok – who was accompanied by Sufandi – as he feared for his family’s safety, the court heard.
As for the case linked to the Woodgrove Walk house, Sufandi and Rai worked togetther to deceive Maybank into disbursing a mortgage loan of $2.84 million.
The DPPs said the bank was duped into believing that a man identified as Iswandi Yahya, who was dealt with in court earlier, had an annual income of $471,600 in 2013, based on forged income documents Sufandi had submitted.
They said: “Iswandi was recruited by Sufandi to put his name down as the buyer of (the Woodgrove Walk house) and apply for a mortgage loan in his name.”
Haron and Juma’at were property agents at the time of the offences.
According to court documents, the pair had convinced the sellers to state an inflated price on the conveyancing documents and pay cashback to a company called Evergreen Builders & Security (EBS) after completion.
The sale was completed on Oct 3, 2014, and a sum of $464,000 was then paid to EBS. During the trial, Rai testified that his home was EBS’ registered address. - The Straits Times/ANN
