Former banker jailed 7 years for cheating 7 clients of nearly S$2 million
SINGAPORE — A former banker was jailed seven years on Monday (May 10) for cheating seven of his former customers of a total of S$1,969,000. He did this by either promoting fictitious fixed deposits or investment products purportedly offered by United Overseas Bank (UOB) or Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).
- Han Delong, 34, abused the trust of seven of his clients, cheating them a total of S$1,969,000
- He then spent the money at a car dealer and lottery operator Singapore Pools
- He also transferred parts of it to his brother and to a joint account with his ex-girlfriend
SINGAPORE — A former banker was jailed seven years on Monday (May 10) for cheating seven of his former customers of a total of S$1,969,000. He did this by either promoting fictitious fixed deposits or investment products purportedly offered by United Overseas Bank (UOB) or Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC).
The court heard that Han Delong, who pleaded guilty to 27 charges on April 9 this year, was a former senior banker with UOB between August 2014 and December 2015.
Each of the charges — which consist of various counts of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and transferring of criminal proceeds — involved sums that were between S$9,000 and S$350,000.
The 34-year-old, who has 67 other similar charges taken into consideration for his sentencing, then joined OCBC where he was a premier relationship manager between March 2016 and January 2017.
THE CASE
Deputy Public Prosecutor V Jesudevan said that Han was able to take advantage of his clients due to the close relationship he had developed with them as a result of the positions he held at the two banks.
However, Han’s deception — the earliest instance stated in court documents was Feb 28, 2015 — was exposed on April 11 in 2017 after the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) launched investigations against him.
CAD received information that Han had approached a former UOB customer to promote a fixed deposit purportedly offered by the bank. He was no longer working at UOB at that time.
While it was not stated who had tipped off CAD, court documents showed that Han had approached a person named Cherng Heng Choo.
Cherng had transferred S$350,000 to Han’s personal account in February 2016, and agreed to renew the fixed deposit for another six months in August that year.
To give Cherng the impression that the monies were deposited with the bank instead of his personal account, Han issued Cherng a forged document in connection to the purported fixed deposit that had a letterhead of UOB's Rochor branch
Then in August 2016, Han issued another letter for the purported renewal of the fixed deposit.
In another case uncovered by CAD, it found that Han had approached another former UOB customer to make investments while he was working at OCBC.
Between Sept 29 and Nov 16 in 2016, Han approached one Yeow Bee Leng with the intention of promoting a fictitious fixed deposits scheme that was supposedly offered by OCBC.
Yeow fell for the scam and Han misappropriated the S$205,000 that was entrusted to him.
Han transferred S$17,000 to his brother Han Baolong and also transferred S$10,000 on several occasions to a bank account he had jointly maintained with his ex-girlfriend Chua Sher Lynn.
It was not stated if these two individuals will be dealt with by the courts or if they had returned the money.
Han used his illicit gains in other ways, which includes spending S$11,899 on a cashier’s order payable to car dealer Premium Automobiles and transferring S$20,000 to lottery operator Singapore Pools.
He used about S$350,000 he took from the victims to repay other victims and has since made restitution of S$275,000.