An
unemployed Singaporean woman was on Wednesday, Aug 30 sentenced to 29 months in
jail for knowingly helping her Nigerian boyfriend receive money from
scams.
Hasanah
Abdullah, now 44, pleaded guilty to two counts each of assisting another person
to retain benefits of criminal conduct, removing the ill-gotten gains out of
Singapore and dishonestly receiving stolen property. She also earned a
commission for assisting him in his criminal activities.
Nineteen
other charges, mainly for similar offences, were taken into consideration
during sentencing.
Hasanah, who
committed the offences between April 2014 and June 2015, moved to Malaysia in
2013 and fell in love with Richard Osaza after meeting him there.
In December
2013, he asked her to provide him with bank accounts in Singapore to receive
monies on his behalf - purportedly for his clothing business.
However,
when she asked, he was unable to show her any proof of it. Despite this, she
agreed to help, and allowed him to use her bank accounts.
Between
April 19 and Dec 30, 2014, Hasanah allowed Osza to make use of bank accounts
belonging to both her and her daughter. Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Yonghui
said:
"As
Hasanah continued to receive money for Richard, Hasanah suspected that Richard
was, in fact, a scammer and the money that she was receiving on his behalf were
the benefits of his criminal conduct.
"Hasanah's
suspicion turned out to be correct as Richard subsequently introduced Hasanah
to a number of his Nigerian friends who were all scammers."
Instead of
cutting ties with him, Hasanah negotiated with Osza on the quantum of
commission she could receive for her role in their criminal activities.
"It was
finally agreed between Hasanah and Richard that she would receive a commission
of between 1 and 5 per cent for helping Richard receive and transfer the
benefits of his criminal conduct," said DPP Chong.
As part of
the agreement, the Nigerians would inform Hasanah whenever cash was deposited
into her bank accounts. She would then withdraw the money and hand the sum over
to Osza in Malaysia after deducting a cut for her commission.
She earned
between $50,000 and $60,000 in commission. The victims' monies have not been
recovered, the court heard.
In December
2014, Singapore police asked Hasanah to assist them in their investigations as
they had received several reports involving her bank accounts. Officers also
warned her not to allow others to use the accounts.
She ignored
their warning and used a friend's account to continue receiving and transferring
the benefits of Osza's criminal conduct.
According to
court documents, Hasanah received $416,370.63 and transferred $305,307.63 in
all.
DPP Chong
told District Judge Luke Tan on Wednesday that Hasanah was also uncooperative
and provided misleading evidence to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
Hasanah, who
was unrepresented in court, was supposed to give a statement to the CAD on May
18, 2015. But she failed to turn up and remained uncontactable.
A check with
the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority revealed that she had left Singapore.
She was arrested only about a month later when she tried to re-enter the
country.
For each
count of assisting another person to retain benefits of criminal conduct, she
could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $500,000.
Source:
Strait Times Singapore
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