Woman siphoned $1.3m from 2 firms to claim parcel from scammer
Yahoo News 10 March 2021
Eager to receive a parcel shipped from a love interest, a woman embezzled more than $1.3 million from two companies to secure the parcel.
Liew Bee Yee, 43, was jailed for six years on Wednesday (10 March), after she pleaded guilty to one amalgamated charge of criminal breach of trust as a servant between August and October 2019.
At the time of the offences, she worked as an accounts manager for McCoy and iConnexion Asia, both of which were related companies involved in the trading of electronic products.
The companies are currently facing legal action from Western Union after Liew took loans from their Western Union business accounts and transferred the monies to her personal account.
Liew’s lawyers Genith Lim and Simon Tan characterised their client as a “simple, naive and unsophisticated lady” who fell prey to a scam due to her trusting nature.
While Liew had a partner, the single woman fell in love with a person who scammed her and was “blindsided” by him, her lawyers say.
Liew had been employed by McCoy for about a decade and was promoted to accounts manager in 2015. She was entrusted with the firm’s bank account.
In August 2019, Liew befriended a friend known to her as “Benjamin” online, and they began chatting on WhatsApp.
Benjamin later asked Liew to be his girlfriend, but the woman rejected him, claiming she was attached. Benjamin later claimed that he was a pilot and promised to send her a parcel from Paris containing gifts and monies.
Liew initially declined the parcel but became curious and allowed for the parcel to be delivered to her office’s premises.
On 26 August 2019, Liew was contacted by another person known as “Kian”. Kian told her that he was from a company known as “Open Wings Global Express Service” and that she had a parcel from Benjamin.
Kian asked her to make payment as the parcel was overweight. To do so, Liew withdrew $3,600 and deposited the amount to an account provided by Kian. She then learned from him that she would receive a parcel containing cash amounting to EUR370,000 (S$592,603).
“Upon learning of this, the accused felt happy and became greedy that she would receive EUR370,000 in the parcel,” the prosecution said. Benjamin later told the accused that there were other branded items and jewellery in the parcel.
On 27 August 2019, Kian told Liew that she had to pay further sums for “taxes and other expenses” for the parcel to arrive in Singapore.
While speaking to Kian on the phone, Liew thought that his voice sounded like Benjamin’s. She confronted Benjamin about this, but was assured that Benjamin and Kian were two different people.
She started siphoning monies from her companies’ bank accounts to pay for what Kian claimed was “insurance” or “storage”.
In order to avoid detection, she transferred monies to various other intermediate bank accounts first, before transferring them to her personal bank account. She included a fake purpose in the details of the transactions to mask their true purpose. She would then withdraw the cash.
Between 26 August and 9 October 2019, Liew misappropriated $1,302,900 from McCoy and iConnexion.
While the director of iConnexion was on an overseas trip he received a call from Western Union asking for repayments for credit drawn by iConnexion.
The director said that iConnexion did not borrow any money and then contacted Liew to check on the matter. Liew claimed that it was a misunderstanding and that she would settle the issue. She believed that the monies could be repaid to the companies once she received the parcel.
When the director returned to Singapore on 1 October 2019, he received another call from Western Union and was informed that the monies had been transferred to Liew’s personal bank account.
The director confronted Liew the next day and she admitted that she had misappropriated monies from the company for unauthorised purposes.
The director lodged a police report on 14 October 2019 after it became clear that Liew could not repay the sums, and that she had misappropriated more than she had initially admitted.
For committing criminal breach of trust as a servant, Liew could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined.
为60万元爱的礼物 女经理挪用130万元公款
来自 / 新明日报 发布 / 2021年3月11日
女经理情牵“幽灵”飞机师情人的60万元“爱的包裹”，一个月内挪用公款33次，数额高达130万元，最终换来六年牢狱之灾。
被告刘美仪（43岁，音译）面对一项失信控状，3月10日在亲友的陪同下出庭认罪。
案情披露，被告在案发时担任两家公司的账目经理，负责管理银行账户、信贷户头，以及人事和行政事宜。
2019年8月，被告在网上结识一名叫“班杰明（Benjamin）”的男子。当对方提出交往的要求时，被告起初以已有另一半为由拒绝，但两人继续保持联系。被告随后得知对方是机师，当时人在法国巴黎。
班杰明后来告诉被告，为表达爱意，想把一个大礼包寄给她。被告起初拒收，但出于好奇，还是给了公司地址作为收件处。被告月底便收到一个声称来自快递公司的男子发来简讯，称包裹超重，要被告支付3600元的“超重费”。
被告付费后询问班杰明包裹装些什么，对方称里头有37万欧元（约60万新元）和珠宝等奢侈品。这让被告倍感期待，不过却迟迟收不到包裹，反而不断收到“快递男”的电话，以关税、保险和安全费等理由，要她付钱。
眼看个人户头余额不足，被告便开始挪用公款，一个多月内33次转账共130万2900元给“快递公司”的11个银行账户。
被告犯案期间恰逢另一名财务经理休假，让她同时拥有公司的四个银行户头。被告先把钱分别转去这些户头，再转到个人户头提现，随后转给快递男。
公司董事过后收到信贷公司的欠款提醒，也发现公司账户有款项转入被告个人账户。被告原说那是一场误会，之后才坦承罪行，董事随后报警。
由于被告事后只赔偿17万元，而在转给快递男的巨款中，只有3万多元被起获，尚有近百万元石沉大海，给公司和股东带来损失，还导致两家公司被信贷公司起诉。