Jail for man linked to loan ruse that duped banks of over $1.2m

A man who worked with a female accomplice to dupe two banks into disbursing loans totaling $1,218,000 by using false statements was sentenced to three years and nine months' jail on Nov 11.

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) (Singapore) was cheated of $178,000, while Maybank Singapore was cheated of the remaining $1.04 million.

District Judge Marvin Bay had earlier convicted Lee Beng Yong, 55, who is also known as Muhammad Zaki Lee, of six counts of cheating.

In earlier proceedings, defense lawyer Joshua Tong said that Lee's accomplice, Tan You Jia, also known as Gina, had taken all the ill-gotten gains, while Lee, who acted like her employee, was paid $5,000.

Tan, then 50, was sentenced to 4 1/2 years' jail in March 2021.

Delivering his sentence on Nov 11, Judge Bay said that Lee could not be regarded as a "mere foot soldier" in the scheme and was instead closer to being Tan's "trusted lieutenant".

The judge added: "Despite not being the conceptual mastermind, (Lee) was actively involved in crucial aspects of the scheme... While (he) claimed to have received just a paltry $5,000... the extent of his actual rewards remains murky."