Six are charged for allowing criminals to use their bank accounts

SIX people will be charged in court on Monday (November 4) for giving up 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 suspects were six men and three women, but did not elaborate on their ages or nationalities.

The six opened new bank accounts and gave the details to a criminal syndicate in exchange for a monthly payment. Between September 2022 and May 2023, the accounts were used to transfer nearly S$8 million.

They will be charged with, among other things, inciting deception, inciting unauthorized access to computer material, helping others to retain benefits from criminal conduct and registering a shell company.

Four of these people are also alleged to have assisted in money laundering and will face additional charges for transferring benefits from criminal conduct.

One of the four acted as a recruiter, implicated three of the others in the scheme and provided false information to an investigating officer.

BT in your inbox

Start and end every day with the latest news stories and analysis, straight to your inbox.

The six suspects are charged in connection with a series of banking-related malware crimes, with eight people 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 that malware was being used to compromise mobile devices, resulting in unauthorized transactions from bank accounts, even though victims did not reveal their one-time passwords.

One of the eight will also face additional charges in court on November 4. He acted as the ‘middle manager’ in the syndicate, recruiting members and instructing others to recruit more people who would part with their bank accounts.

He allegedly passed on instructions from the criminal syndicate to other members of the organized crime group to carry out cash withdrawals or money transfers to facilitate money laundering.

The penalty for conspiring to defraud a bank to open a bank account is imprisonment for up to three years, a fine, or both. Aiding and abetting the access of unknown persons to a bank’s computer system carries a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment for up to two years, or both, for a first-time offender.

Transferring benefits from criminal conduct – including helping others retain the benefits of criminal conduct through conversions or transfers – is punishable by a fine of up to S$500,000 or imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both.

The penalty for acting as a member of a locally affiliated organized crime group is a fine of up to S$100,000 and imprisonment for up to five years, or both.