- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: Enticed by a reward of S$1 million, a former police officer helped a foreign scam syndicate use Singapore as a conduit to facilitate proceeds of its crime by funnelling the money through a shell company he had set up in 2018.
He would then withdraw the money from the corporate account of the company, which purportedly made ice cream, and fly to locations such as Macau and Sydney to deliver the money to the mastermind of the syndicate.
After about $10.3 million in criminal proceeds was wired to the account, he withdrew the entire sum within seven days with the intention of delivering it to a man known as “Augereau”, the court heard.
Thye Wee Boon, 43, successfully delivered some $4 million in cash to the syndicate before he was caught and arrested by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) in 2021.
The remainder of the proceeds has since been recovered.
The Singaporean, who is represented by lawyers Adrian Wee and Lynette Chang of Lighthouse Law, claimed trial when he was charged in February 2021.
On Wednesday (Nov 6), Thye was sentenced to eight years and eight months’ jail after he was found guilty and convicted on nine charges.
Five of the charges were over transferring benefits of criminal conduct, two were over acquiring benefits from criminal conduct, and another two were over failing to report movement of cash. Eight similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Thye, who had faced 19 charges initially, was acquitted of two counts of transferring benefits of criminal conduct.
He lodged an appeal immediately after his sentencing and is out on a $150,000 bail.
The prosecution stated in its submissions that Thye had served as a police officer for six years from 2002 to 2008. He was a uniformed officer at a ground unit in the Singapore Police Force for three years before spending the next three years with the Traffic Police.
The scam
Investigations revealed that a French pharmaceutical company fell victim to a business e-mail impersonation scam by the syndicate in March 2020.
The firm transferred more than $10 million for what itbelieved was a shipment of surgical masks and hand sanitisers at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The syndicate used the corporate bank account that Thye had set up to receive the money.
Checks on the Singapore business registry show Thye remains a business director in three firms, including Cream Palette, which is described by the prosecution as the shell company he used to facilitate the offences.
The pharmaceutical firm realised it had been duped when it was unable to contact the supposed supplier after it wired the money to Cream Palette’s bank account.
The prosecution said Thye admitted to buying a luxury Porsche vehicle worth $154,200 using the criminal proceeds.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Yong argued in his sentencing submissions that Thye had committed these offences at a time when people were desperate for masks and hand sanitisers, and that the syndicate had used people’s fear of the virus to carry out the fraud.
While delivering the $4 million to the syndicate, Thye attempted to cover his tracks by exchanging a series of text messages with Augereau to give the impression that he was returning money that Augereau had mistakenly transferred to him.
‘Chance meeting’
During the trial, Thye claimed to have met Augereau by chance when he was in Seoul for a business and holiday trip in 2019.
He said he had loaned the Frenchman 100,000 Korean won, or around $116 in 2020, for a taxi ride as Augereau had lost his wallet.
He added that they happened to be staying at the same hotel and exchanged phone numbers. Thye said he made a business proposal to Augereau to start a Taiwan food court in Singapore.
The Frenchman agreed to be an investor in the joint venture, which explained how Thye had received the $10 million. Thye said that after he had received the money, he sent a know-your-client (KYC) form to Augereau, but the Frenchman decided he did not want to continue the partnership as he did not want to fill in the form.
In response, the prosecution said in its submissions that the explanation about the KYC questionnaire was a “lame and farcical attempt” to avoid liability for money laundering.
This was especially so since Thye told CAD officers after his arrest that he had found Augereau to be suspicious, and that the Frenchman had transferred him the $10 million despite the lack of a formal agreement for the joint venture.
In closing, DPP Yong said Thye’s defence was often illogical, incoherent and lacking in supporting evidence.
Thye had not spent any of the monies received towards his purported Taiwanese food court. Instead, the money either went back to Augereau or was spent on Thye’s personal expenses, the DPP added.
He was also unable to back his claims of having multiple interactions with the Frenchman, as he could not provide anything in relation to the identity of Augereau and did not even know the full name or company of the man he was purportedly entering into a joint venture with.
DPP Yong added that Thye was also unable to produce his business proposal on the food court, despite claiming to have prepared a detailed proposal for Augereau.
He also could not consistently explain an agreed payment of $1 million to him from Augereau for the purported joint venture.
During investigations, Thye initially said Augereau had agreed to pay him $1 million as a finder’s fee for proposing the joint venture, but later said it was a withdrawal penalty after the Frenchman pulled out of the deal.
He then said the $1 million was for work done on the joint venture, before claiming it was for work done and loss of business opportunity.
The prosecution said the justifications did not make sense as Thye had not done any work on the joint venture.
DPP Yong noted that the only reasonable explanation was that Thye had demanded the $1 million as he knew he was taking a risk in helping to launder the proceeds of criminal activity for the syndicate. - The Straits Times/ANN
