Six people will be charged with 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 crime syndicate to facilitate the movement of large sums of money.

In a statement on Sunday, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said the six included three men and three women, but did not specify their ages or nationalities.

The six opened new bank accounts and provided details to the crime syndicate in exchange for a monthly payment. Between September 2022 and May 2023, almost S$8 million was transferred across the accounts.

They will be charged with inciting fraud, inciting unauthorized access to computer material, assisting another person to benefit from criminal conduct and registering a shell company, among other offences.

Four of these individuals are also alleged to have facilitated money laundering and will face additional charges of transferring the benefits of crime.

One of the four acted as a recruiter, involving the other three in the scheme, and provided false information to the investigator.

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Six suspects have been charged in a series of banking malware crimes, with eight people arrested in June 2023 for their involvement in banking malware crimes reported in Singapore between May and June 2023.

In this case, the SPF received reports of malware being used to compromise mobile devices, resulting in unauthorized transactions from bank accounts, although the victims did not disclose their one-time passwords.

One of the eight will also face additional charges in court on November 4. He acted as a “middle manager” for the syndicate, recruiting members and instructing others to recruit more people to give up their bank accounts.

He allegedly relayed instructions from the crime syndicate to other members of the organized crime group to withdraw cash or transfer funds to facilitate money laundering.

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

Transferring the benefits of criminal conduct, including helping others retain the benefits of criminal conduct by conversion or transfer, is punishable by a fine of up to S$500,000 or imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both.

The penalty for being a member of a local organized crime group is a fine of up to S$100,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years, or both.