- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: In order to settle his gambling debts, a legal executive schemed to cheat his own firm and its long-time client out of more than S$260,000.
The man, who had been employed at the law firm since 1994, had the client transfer the money on several occasions to the firm’s bank account, from which he subsequently took the money.
He told the firm’s lawyers he needed the money for office expenses and client payments on separate occasions.
On Friday (Nov 8), Ram S Naidu, 61, was convicted on six charges involving cheating, falsification of accounts, forgery and criminal breach of trust.
He agreed to have 13 other related charges taken into account for his sentencing on Dec 4.
The court head that Naidu had orchestrated his plan as he had incurred gambling debts between 2014 and 2021.
In 2014, the client had purchased a unit at Vision Exchange in Jurong East for about $1.8 million. She was put in contact with Naidu, who was tasked to help her with the conveyancing of the property.
Naidu was responsible for ensuring that the client made her payments on time.
Around February 2017, he instructed her to pay the last 10 per cent of her purchase price to the law firm’s bank account, instead of to the property developer which had been the case for previous payments.
He lied that the firm would make the final payment on her behalf. She then transferred about $167,600 to the account.
Instead of making the final payment, which was due on Feb 16, 2017, Naidu lied to the lawyers at the firm that he needed to withdraw the monies for reasons such as office expenses and property payments for other clients.
In all, he made multiple withdrawals amounting to at least $167,600 to settle his gambling debts.
To cover up his tracks with the developer of Vision Exchange, Naidu drafted four letters to the developer’s lawyers to seek extensions for the client’s final payment, claiming that these were the latter’s instructions.
Naidu paid the $167,600 to the developer only on March 27, 2018, along with a late interest fee of more than $4,000.
The court heard the entire sum came out of the firm’s funds. It was not said in court if the law firm knew of Naidu’s scheming at this point.
Before this offence, the prosecution said that Naidu had earlier cheated the same client out of $50,280 by telling her that this was the stamp duty owed for the purchase of her unit at Vision Exchange.
He had employed the same tactics to withdraw the money from the firm’s account for his own use.
Internally, Naidu instructed the firm’s bookkeeper to record the monies deposited in the firm’s bank account as cost and disbursement, instead of depositing the money into the firm’s conveyancing account.
He employed the same strategy when the same client wanted to purchase a unit at SkyHabitat in Bishan for her daughter in 2021.
On Jan 20, 2021, Naidu cheated her out of $42,450 by telling her it was the sum she owed for stamp duty of the property.
Two days later, Naidu prepared a blank cheque for a lawyer in his firm to sign.
He then told the lawyer that it was for an urgent payment and he had left the cheque blank as he was unsure of the amount at the moment.
The lawyer signed the cheque as he trusted Naidu, but the 61-year-old then withdrew $46,000 from the firm’s account to pay his debt to loan sharks.
Naidu was eventually caught when the client became suspicious. She asked the firm for the title deeds of both properties in July 2021 to no avail, and lodged a police report against the firm on Dec 28, 2021.
On Jan 4, 2022, she lodged a second police report against the firm as she suspected someone had misappropriated her stamp duty and property payments for the two properties.
Naidu has not made any restitution to the client or his former employer to date. - The Straits Times/ANN
