40YO Magician Scammed S$73K from IRAS; He Submitted 58 Fake Claims for 49 People

A magician’s tricks usually involve some form of deception, so that the audience is surprised at the end.

There’s no malice in this deception, however; it’s simply necessary to perform the trick, which entertains audiences due to its mysteriousness.

However, one magician here recently used deception for an entirely different reason: to scam a government organisation of tens of thousands of dollars.

40YO Magician Scammed S$73K from IRAS; He Submitted 58 Fake Claims for 49 People

The man, S Chandran, goes by the name Ran Superman for his magician work. The 40-year-old founded the events companies Entertainment Paradize and Magical Wonderland.

Even though he’d won several prestigious magician awards, including one previously given to David Copperfield, Chandran concocted a plan to dupe the gahmen into giving him money after the Government’s Productivity Innovation Credit (PIC) scheme was introduced in 2010.

The aim of the scheme was to encourage businesses here to invest in productivity and innovation, TODAY reported.

Chandran became a PIC consultant and started advertising his services. Then, when he started getting clients, he instructed three of them in 2014 to list three local employees in their application forms.

He also told them to state that they operated businesses generating a revenue of S$1,000m, which was false.

Using these applications, Chandran obtained S$73,818 in fraudulent PIC cash payouts and bonuses.

He collected half of this amount for his personal benefit.

Then, in 2018, he repeated the offence, only this time, he helped 49 applicants submit 58 fake claims.

The amount of cash payouts and bonuses listed in all of his charges totalled more than S$1.1 million, of which S$870,000 was disbursed by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras).

Chandran also forged invoices, receipts, and other documentation to make the claims look legitimate in case an audit was conducted.

Sentenced to Three Years’ Jail

Ever since Chandran was charged in 2017, he has flip-flopped on whether to plead guilty. He pleaded guilty in 2018, but then retracted his plea the next year.

He later said he would like to plead guilty, but changed his mind once more on Wednesday (31 March).

Despite this, the judge sentenced the 40-year-old to three years’ jail on Wednesday. He was also ordered to pay Iras a financial penalty of S$295,272 – four times the amount cheated.

If he can’t afford the penalty, he’ll have to add 30 weeks to his sentence.

Made Singapore “Proud”

In court, Chandran said he’d been suffering from “mental anguish” due to his son being bullied in school and his wife and mother being ostracised because of his court case.

He added that his mother has cancer and that he’s the sole breadwinner.

“I’ve maintained a good character and celebrity status in society”, Chandran said, adding that he had “made Singapore proud on an international level” by breaking a Guinness World Record and winning several magician awards.

The 40-year-old still maintains his innocence.

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