Man Who Scammed By Claiming That He’s Linked to Ho Ching Jailed for 6 Years 10 Months

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Just like in the wild, where animals have to adapt to their environment, scammers in the country are evolving.

Nowadays, people are more aware of scams and therefore more difficult to deceive.

So, if a man comes up to you talking about an investment scheme, alarm bells would immediately go off in your head.

That’s why scammers have come up with new, sophisticated ways to trick their victims, like claiming their investment scheme involves Temasek Holdings’ CEO.

Man Who Scammed By Claiming That He’s Linked to Ho Ching Jailed for 6 Years 10 Months

A scammer who claimed to have links to Ho Ching as part of his non-existent investment schemes was sentenced to jailed for six years and 10 months on Wednesday (10 Feb).

36-year-old Sathish Nair Dhanabalan was convicted of cheating nine victims, including his friends, of about S$1.23 million in total between 2014 and mid-2017.

He pleaded guilty to 21 charges including cheating, forgery, and theft. Another 41 charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

So, what did he do?

The Temasek Scam

Satish’s modus operandi was this: convince people that his fake investment scheme actually existed so they would hand money over to him.

How did he do this?

By calling it the “Temasek Investment”, and claiming that Temasek had allocated some “lots” for him as part of a currency exchange investment programme which he fabricated.

He promised victims returns of as high as 100% within the month, and even made initial payments to persuade them into making more investments.

One victim of this scam was Satish’s 56-year-old neighbour, whom Satish approached in 2014.

He told his neighbour that if he invested money in the programme, it would double in just one month.

While the victim already trusted Satish, what solidified his belief in the investment scheme were text messages and calls from someone who claimed to be Mdm Ho.

So, he handed over $42,500 to Satish, who provided a handwritten note stating that he would receive a total return of S$85,000.

But of course, this money never came.

When the returns of the investment were due, Satish persuaded the victim to continue investing the sum instead of withdrawing it.

This ruse went on until mid-2016, and the victim gave Sathish S$207,100.

To make the ruse more believable, Satish also gifted the victim a Samsung phone and a Rolex watch, which he claimed were tokens of appreciation from Temasek.

He also gave the victim several letters related to the supposed investment, one of which bore Mdm Ho’s forged signature.

The victim only realised something was amiss when the person impersonating Mdm Ho promised to pay for his daughter’s school fees but did not deliver on the payment.

The victim called the police on 3 Nov, 2017, and Sathish was arrested.

Stole From His Father

But scamming people out of thousands of dollars wasn’t the only offence Satish committed.

To assuage some victims of his scam who were demanding to get their investment funds, Satish stole some cheques belonging to his 71-year-old father and forged them.

He issued three of them to his victims, each bearing S$150,000.

However, all four cheques bounced due to insufficient money in his father’s bank account.

Despite this, Satish’s father posted bail of S$50,000 for his son, and even helped repay some of the money he cheated.

Featured Image: TheCorgi / Shutterstock.com

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]