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Woman jailed more than 6 years for embezzling S$1.4m from non-profit

SINGAPORE — While working as a finance and administrative assistant at a non-profit organisation, Aggiss Tan Shu Han misappropriated more than S$1 million in two months.

With her ill-gotten gains, Aggiss Tan Shu Han bought branded bags and gold jewellery.

With her ill-gotten gains, Aggiss Tan Shu Han bought branded bags and gold jewellery.

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  • Aggiss Tan Shu Han misappropriated the money through unauthorised bank transfers 
  • She transferred most of it to scammers, and bought luxury bags and gold jewellery 
  • When she was held on remand, she told her landlady to lie about the rental fees she was paying
  • She also claimed to the police that she had sold the bags and jewellery


SINGAPORE — While working as a finance and administrative assistant at a non-profit organisation, Aggiss Tan Shu Han misappropriated more than S$1 million in two months. 

With her ill-gotten gains, she bought branded bags and gold jewellery.

She transferred the bulk of the money to a scammer named “Fred Cheong”, whom she met through an online dating application.

When she was caught and interviewed by the police, she lied that she sold the bags and jewellery.

On Wednesday (July 28), Tan, 36, was jailed six years and seven months.

The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge each of criminal breach of trust as a servant, obstructing justice and giving a false statement to the police.

Three similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing. 

WHAT SHE DID

At the time of her crimes in 2019, Tan worked at The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Asia Pacific. The non-profit develops programmes focusing on tuberculosis, lung health and non-communicable diseases. 

Tan received a monthly wage of about S$2,500, and the other member of her team was accountant Cuthbert Syn.

In March 2019, Mr Syn gave Tan his internet-banking token for one of the organisation’s Standard Chartered (StanChart) bank accounts and told her to transfer funds between that and other accounts.

On several occasions, Mr Syn asked her to return the token but she lied that she had forgotten to take it to the office.

Between April 4 and June 10 in 2019, she used it to transfer about S$1 million to her bank account on 133 occasions.

She pulled this off by logging into the organisation’s DBS bank account, submitting a fund transfer request to the StanChart account, and emailing the three signatories of the DBS account to ask them to approve the transfer.

After any two signatories did so, the transfer was approved.

She then used the internet-banking token to log into the StanChart account and transfer the money out.

That same period, she embezzled another S$453,000 from another of the organisation’s bank accounts.

With the sums, she transferred S$797,000 to third parties, based on instructions from her purported boyfriend “Fred Cheong”.

This was to release a parcel containing US$800,000 (S$1.08 million) in cash that was allegedly detained by Malaysian authorities. 

Or so she thought.

It turned out to be a scam.

She also transferred about S$322,000 to other scammers and spent more than S$200,000 on luxury goods and debt payments.

She has not repaid the sums, though the police managed to recover about S$225,000 and the luxury goods.

This means that her former employer incurred S$1.2 million in losses.

TOLD LANDLADY TO LIE ABOUT RENTAL FEES

Tan was remanded on June 20, 2019 for investigations. 

Police officers allowed her to use her mobile phone on compassionate grounds to arrange for her daughter’s childcare.

WIth access to her phone, she sent a WhatsApp text message to her landlady Liew Chwee Jen, saying: “If anyone ask I transfer u money juz (sic) say I lend from u dun say is rental.” 

She then deleted the message.

She had been keeping the jewellery and bags in the unit that she rented from Ms Liew.

The next day, Ms Liew lied to police officers that she did not recall receiving rental money from Tan. 

The police later found Tan’s WhatsApp message on Ms Liew’s mobile phone. The landlady then retracted her lie.

Tan also lied to the police in her statement, claiming that she sold the jewellery and bags. 

Yet officers later found and seized the items from her unit.

Court documents did not state if Ms Liew was prosecuted.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Foo Shi Hao sought the sentence imposed, arguing that Tan’s modus operandi revealed a significant degree of planning and premeditation.

For the most serious crime of criminal breach of trust as a servant, she could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined.

Related topics

crime court embezzlement criminal breach of trust scam

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