$2.4m OVERSEAS HOME SCAM

How a property investor was conned

- Tan Ooi Boon

A property investor learnt an expensive lesson on why she should not have bought a $2.4 million overseas home by just listening to the sales pitch and reading the project brochure.

She and her appointed representative were so taken in by the seller that they were misled into believing the housing project in Japan was as safe as developments in Singapore and there was no need to appoint their own lawyer to do the necessary checks.

If they had at least visited the site of the project, located in the Niseko ski resort in Hokkaido, they would have been suspicious immediately as the address would have led them to a forested area and not a boarded-up construction site for luxurious homes.

The Indonesian buyer, Ms Astrawati Aluwi, discovered the deal was a scam only some two years after the purchase when her real estate agent Serene Wan could not get any commission for her role in the deal.

When they finally engaged a Japanese lawyer to check on the project, they found out that the developer, Infinity Capital Group, did not even own the land, let alone build any homes.

Fortunately, the buyer had the financial muscle to take all the parties involved in the fraud to the Singapore High Court to recover almost $2.3 million that she had paid since she signed the deal in 2019.

Other than the developer, the buyer also sued Mr Lo Yew Seng, who described himself an investor and adviser to the developer, and its general manager Chen Yicheng, who did not defend the claim.

She accused Mr Lo of conspiring with Mr Chen to dupe her with false representation even though they knew the developer did not have the money to own the land.

Senior High Court Judge Tan Siong Thye found that Mr Lo had played a major role in securing the sale because he dealt with Ms Wan directly on many occasions, such as by sending the sales brochures as well as making a false assurance that the construction on the freehold land would start soon.