Singapore's Crook Money Changer Sentenced to 22 Years in Jail

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Singapore's Crook Money Changer Sentenced to 22 Years in Jail

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Singapore High Court sentenced Lam Cheng Fong, a partner of Wen Long Money Changer, to 22 years in jail on July 19. The accused was alleged to deceive to offer Chinese nationals working in Singapore an above-market rate of exchange, collecting up to S$ 8.77 million (1 S$=0.55 US$) from more than 1,000 Chinese workers within three months, which were meant to remit to China, their home country. He squandered the money on buying drinks, going nightclubs and gambling and tried every means to cover up his crimes.

Lam, aged 30, had been dealing with money-changing business with his grandmother before he was arrested. Before this Spring Festival when some workers turned up to check the remittance after learning that the families had not received the money, they found the shop closed. Then they reported to the police. The police arrested Lam on January 30 and sent him to the court the next day.

But the sentence brings little comfort to most of the Chinese workers, whose hard-earned money was squandered by the accused. The police have been working at recovering as much of the workers' money as possible but only S$900,000 have been recovered. That means at most the workers can get only 10 cents for every dollar lost.

Lam was a modest money changer when he started his business in July 1998. But 14 months later, he was addicted to gambling, clubbing and womanizing, causing the collapse of his business and grief to thousands.

When he kept losing in gambling, he began to offer Chinese workers an above-market rate of exchange for their remittance as 1:4.8 or even 1:4.9 despite the general rate of 1:4.5 or 4.6.

But on one condition: The money will be sent a month later, instead of the usual three or four days.

By doing this, Lam was able to collect S$300, 000 to 500,000 every day over seven months from last June to this January, as Chinese workers threw on doubts on it and spread the word of his generous rates. Other money changers couldn't keep wondering why lam was willing to lose money?

Lam used the one-month condition to roll over the amount he was stealing from the till at his company. Moreover, to avoid being suspected by the Monetary Bureau and other remittance agents, he made changes on remittance dates and rates of exchange.

In a letter to his family before he fled to Malaysia, he said: "I am guilty. Don't worry about me." He returned to Singapore to confess his crime on January 29.

By PD Online Staff Yang Ruoqian

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