A 50-YEAR-OLD former assistant project manager was jailed for 24 months yesterday for money laundering offences committed two years ago. In all, Chua Kok Hin received about $470,000 which he had reason to believe was stolen property. He transferred $466,000 out of Singapore. Chua pleaded guilty to five charges and had 12 others taken into consideration.
Investigations showed that the following month, Rosina told Chua she did not have a bank account in Malaysia, and asked him to open one in Singapore to help her receive funds for her business in Malaysia. After Chua did so, he provided her his OCBC account details.
On June 21, 2012, a sum of US$60,000 (S$76,000) was fraudulently transferred from American Susan Price Hollern’s bank account in the United States to Chua’s OCBC account. Ms Hollern, 51, later reported to police that her e-mail account had been hacked and a fraudulent transfer made to Chua’s account in Singapore, when she had no dealings with anyone here.
As instructed by Rosina, Chua withdrew $72,000 from the account the next day and left for Malaysia. He deposited the sum into a Hong Leong Bank account. Three days later, another amount of $279,125 was fraudulently transferred from Talya Investments to Chua’s account.
Of this amount, Rosina told Chua to transfer $150,000 into a bank account in Malaysia. Chua complied and handed over the sum on June 27 to his co-worker Ngo Soon Kiong, 35, who deposited it into the same Hong Leong account in Johor Baru. Investigations showed Rosina instructed Chua to deposit another sum of $115,000 into three bank accounts in Malaysia.
