Jail for pair linked to bogus scheme that lured 2,000 investors

Fraud mastermind sentenced to 10½ years in jail and ordered to pay $3.65m penalty

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

He was the managing director of a firm called Singliworld which lured more than 2,000 investors in Singapore into an "investment scheme" that promised trading returns as high as 13 per cent per month.

But the scheme turned out to be fraudulent and there was a loss of over US$10 million (S$13.7 million) after more than US$21 million was collected from the investors, which also included thousands from other countries.

On Jan 3, Leong Koon Wah, 51, who was Singliworld's managing director at the time of the offences, was sentenced to 10 years and six months in jail, and ordered to pay a penalty of $3,658,600.

He will spend an additional 18 months behind bars if he fails to fork out the amount.

Leong was also a director at three other firms - Singliworld HK, Triumph Global (Asia), which was incorporated in Hong Kong, and Union Markets, a New Zealand-incorporated company.

As at May 2015, Leong had earned approximately US$3.1 million through multi-level marketing (MLM) despite having invested only a total of US$1,000 himself.

He also held several accounts linked to the scheme in his wife's name even though she had not made any investments. He earned around US$3.4 million through her accounts.

Ng Kuan Chuan, 38, who was also a director at Triumph Global and Singliworld HK, was sentenced to seven years and six months' jail after earning some US$300,000.

Ng, who was involved in the management of Union Markets, was also ordered to pay a fine of $300,000 and will spend another six months behind bars in default.