‘Big Boss’ Owed Money So He Pretended to be His Own PA & Said He Was in a Coma

Before we commence, allow this poor writer to ask you a simple question:

How far would you go… to avoid the payment of debts?

I mean; not insinuating that you’ve some serious debt tendencies, but just envision it. Like for example, would you…

1. Purposely take the longer-running bus to avoid meeting your creditor?
2. Hide in the toilet for hours on end?
3. Flee overseas, draw an arrow on your forehead and start calling yourself The Last Airdebtor?

Because for me, I would actually go to some pretty great lengths to avoid my creditor. That $1.50 I owe for fishball noodles?

They’re never gonna get it. Muahahaha.

Yet, even in my wildest dreams, I would never have expected this, because this is like a whole new level of the ‘avoid creditors at all costs’ art.

Impersonating your own personal assistant and claiming that your real persona’s in a coma?

That’s some high-level shit man.

‘Big Boss’ Owed Money So He Pretended to be His Own PA & Said He Was in a Coma

According to TODAYonline, Richard Goh Swee Meng had tricked his victim into “investing” S$20,000 with him, by masquerading as the successful owner of an oil and gas company.

When there were no “returns”, however, he pretended to be his own personal assistant and texted her, saying that he was in a coma.

Naturally, the ruse didn’t quite work out well in the end.

According to reports, it all started when Richard met the victim, Nina Low, online in October 2017.

As he needed money to pay his expenses, he developed a plan to cheat her. Lying that he was a successful businessman in the oil and gas sector, he claimed to have dealings in private properties, lived around Bukit Timah Road and had a personal driver and assistant to his name.

Business catfish. Check.

Primarily communicating over the messaging platform WeChat, they also met in person on three occasions. They reportedly video-chatted as well, and Richard made sure to aim the camera such that terrace houses were in the background.

You know, kind of like this girl:

All of it was build-up to the unveiling of his grand plan, which was put into action on 20 Feb last year.

Informing Ms Low that she could earn S$60,000 within a month by investing a third of that sum with him, he repeated the notion over and over again, and the hook was snagged.

She eventually transferred the required sum of money to his bank account, and even increased her transfer limit in order to do so.

‘Sleeping in his office’

Richard had told Ms Low that her returns would be received in March last year.

It didn’t happen.

And so, when she came calling for her ‘profits’, Richard reportedly claimed that…

• He was overseas
• His company had run into some issues, and he was sleeping in his office to deal with them (wah, 伟大)
• He didn’t have his Internet banking token with him

To prevent her from calling his bluff, he also got a screenshot of someone else’s banking account and showed Ms Low a sum of S$176 million, which he claimed was his own account.

Kind of weird for anyone to have $176 million in a bank account, but anyways.

In the end, he lied that he had inhaled too much gas because of his job, and had fallen sick. When Ms Low said that she would make a police report, Richard reportedly told her in end-March last year that his personal assistant would transfer the S$60,000 to her.

Then, impersonating a certain ‘Aisha’, the supposed assistant, he then told Ms Low over WeChat that he was in a coma due to his medical condition.

And when he was supposedly ‘incarcerated’, he reportedly stopped replying to the victim altogether.

(We’re thinking of engaging him as our scriptwriter for our videos)

Sentencing

In court, Goh gave his own mitigation plea, confessing that he had cheated Ms Low “due to my desperation from loan sharks chasing me”.

He also expressed a wish to repent for his mistakes.

“Whatever sentence Your Honour is giving me, even after I’m released from prison, I will contact the investigation officer to slowly pay back the lady,” he told District Judge Ong Luan Tze.

Funny that it’s hard to trust his words, isn’t it?

Last Friday (2 Aug 2019), the 47-year-old was eventually sentenced to one year and two months’ jail after pleading guilty to one cheating charge.

He will begin serving his sentence on 27 Sep 2019 and remains out on bail.

And so… now what?

Well, let that be a lesson to you guys, folks.

Professing that you’re in a coma probably isn’t gonna work. Telling people you live in Bukit Timah doesn’t work.

As such, I think we should all endeavour to pay our debts on time. Not just because it’s the morally right thing to do…

But because freedom’s a lot more priceless than life behind bars.

And so, let’s all do the right thing here…

Except for that S$1.50 I owe. Nvm la hor. 😉