A sales employee lied about having staff discounts to pay off his S$50,000 gambling debt.
He tricked eight customers into transferring money to his account and deceived his company into delivering products to specified addresses, which he then resold for profit.
The total amount involved was S$35,013.
The defendant, Guo Youjin (name transliterated from Mandarin), 28, faced 10 counts of fraud.
He admitted to three charges, with the remaining counts taken into consideration. The judge sentenced him to eight months and two weeks in prison today (19 Mar 2025).
Here’s what happened.
Deceptive Sales Tactics
According to case details, the defendant was employed by a recruitment company as a Samsung Electronics sales representative in Singapore.
He worked at the Courts electronics and furniture store in Funan Mall, promoting Samsung products.
Burdened with $50,000 in gambling debts, he began posting advertisements on Carousell, falsely claiming to be a Courts employee with staff discounts.
He told customers they could purchase products at lower prices through him.
Guo would ask customers to transfer money to his personal bank account to receive the discount and would provide them with receipts.
In reality, Guo was not directly employed by Courts and had no access to employee discounts.
He had no authority to issue Courts receipts but would get colleagues to help him generate them.
Multiple Victims and Company Losses
Several customers who made payments never received their products. When questioned, Guo made excuses about items being out of stock.
Some suspicious customers contacted Courts directly. When discovered the fraud, they immediately reported it to the police.
In another instance, a customer purchased a television and sound bar worth S$6,098 from Courts in December 2023 but requested delayed delivery due to ongoing home renovations.
Guo secretly found another buyer, tricked Courts into delivering the television to this buyer’s address, and had the sound bar given directly to him, which he then delivered to the unauthorized buyer.
Courts later shipped products to the legitimate customer, resulting in financial losses for the company.
Guo committed these crimes multiple times between September 2023 and April 2024. His victims included nine customers and Courts, with total losses amounting to $35,013.
The prosecution stated that Guo used the fraudulently obtained money to pay off his gambling debts and abused his colleagues’ trust by using receipts to commit fraud.
They requested a prison sentence of eight to ten months.
Guo’s uncle compensated one of the victims with S$3,000 on 18 Apr 2024.
During his plea for leniency, Guo expressed remorse, saying he recognized his mistakes and must now face the consequences while asking the judge for a lighter sentence.
Here's a summary of the Chocolate Finance saga, simplified so even a non-finance kid can understand:
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