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Woman, 55, gets 12 years’ jail for swindling more than S$3.8m

SINGAPORE — Over three years, she devised six elaborate scams, ranging from a sham rice investment scheme to foreign exchange fraud, and had even cashed in on the SG50 celebrations to cheat her victims.

On Jan 6, 2017, Kalimahton Md Samuri was sentenced to 12 years' jail in her second brush with the law for cheating offences. Photo: Singapore Police Force

On Jan 6, 2017, Kalimahton Md Samuri was sentenced to 12 years' jail in her second brush with the law for cheating offences. Photo: Singapore Police Force

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SINGAPORE — Over three years, she devised six elaborate scams, ranging from a sham rice investment scheme to foreign exchange fraud, and had even cashed in on the SG50 celebrations to cheat her victims. 

Through these scams, Kalimahton Md Samuri, 55, made off with more than S$3.85 million from 15 victims — which landed her a 12-year sentence in prison yesterday. 

This was not Kalimahton’s first brush with the law for cheating offences. In 2000, she was thrown behind bars for six-and-a-half years for criminal breach of trust offences committed from 1997 to 1999. 

Then known as the “Pawnshop Princess”, Kalimahton posed as a member of the Brunei family — calling herself Datin Sharinah — and conned a diamond merchant of over S$7.2 million worth of jewellery. She also reportedly managed to con a merchant into letting her take away a ring with 47 carats worth of diamonds, said to be worth S$1 million. 

She subsequently pawned the jewellery to support her lavish lifestyle, but not before tricking one pawnshop owner into releasing some of the items without proper redemption. The items were then re-pledged at other pawnshops and she pocketed the money. 

This, along with other aggravating factors, was cited by Deputy Public Prosecutor Thiam Jia Min as she pushed for a tougher sentence to be meted out to Kalimahton, an undischarged bankrupt, who committed these crimes between 2012 and 2015.

Another factor was the “staggering amount” involved in the latest scams. “Most of the victims led a modest life and were cheated of their life savings,” DPP Thiam said in court yesterday. 

The 15 victims of Kalimahton’s scams ranged from a housewife and a fishmonger to crane operators and taxi drivers. In one instance, she scammed a taxi driver, of whom she was a regular customer for some time, into coughing up some S$450,000 over the span of a year for a sham “lot investment” scheme. The accused had promised her victim that he could earn S$50,000 for every S$100,000 he invested with her, assuring him that she would help him make money and telling him not to worry. 

Kalimahton had also repeatedly conned a pair of sisters. To the elder sister, who was a customer service officer, she first offered her a rice investment opportunity, whereby the victim would buy premium rice and sell it off to make a profit. The scheme, which did not exist, netted S$80,000 for the accused. Kalimahton later offered her a forex investment scheme — whereby the victim would make a profit by giving Singapore dollars to the accused to convert into foreign currencies. She managed to make off with some S$239,000. 

To the victim’s younger sister, a retiree, Kalimahton offered the same forex exchange scheme. In six instances over the course of two months in 2015, the younger sister gave Kalimahton S$533,000 to be exchanged into Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit and US dollars. 

Through the scams, Kalimahton would use some of the money paid by victims to pay off other victims in the form of “investment returns”, in order to gain their trust and to sustain her scams for a longer period of time. 

The amount of monies returned totalled around S$1.14 million. The rest of the money went into financing her lifestyle of gambling, repaying loans and personal expenses. 

Likening it to a “Ponzi scheme”, the prosecution yesterday also said in “perpetuating a whole web of (carefully devised) scams”, it was clear that Kalimahton “has not learnt from her past offences”. 

Kalimahton’s lawyer Cheryl Ng, on the other hand, said Kalimahton had been cooperative with the authorities and was remorseful about her crime, as she argued for a lighter sentence of between eight and nine years for her client.

But this did not hold water with the district judge. Calling the scams “audacious”, District Judge Jasvender Kaur said in her sentencing remarks that it was clear Kalimahton “had set out to prey on unsuspecting members of the public”. Even with the money returned to the victims, the remaining amount cheated off them was “substantial”, the judge added, also noting the accused had a “prior record of serious dishonesty”. 

Sitting on a wheelchair, Kalimahton looked crestfallen as the sentence was read out. Later, as she spoke with defence lawyers Amarick Gill and Ms Ng, she wept a little, her soft voice shaking. Kalimahton’s sentence will be backdated to Nov 21, 2015, when she was first remanded.

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