Woman siphoned $1.3m from 2 firms to claim parcel from scammer

Woman siphoned $1.3m from 2 firms to claim parcel from scammer

SINGAPORE — Eager to receive a parcel shipped from a love interest, a woman embezzled more than $1.3 million from two companies to secure the parcel.

Liew Bee Yee, 43, was jailed for six years on Wednesday (10 March), after she pleaded guilty to one amalgamated charge of criminal breach of trust as a servant between August and October 2019.

At the time of the offences, she worked as an accounts manager for McCoy and iConnexion Asia, both of which were related companies involved in the trading of electronic products.

The companies are currently facing legal action from Western Union after Liew took loans from their Western Union business accounts and transferred the monies to her personal account.

Liew's lawyers Genith Lim and Simon Tan characterised their client as a "simple, naive and unsophisticated lady" who fell prey to a scam due to her trusting nature.

While Liew had a partner, the single woman fell in love with a person who scammed her and was "blindsided" by him, her lawyers say.

Liew had been employed by McCoy for about a decade and was promoted to accounts manager in 2015. She was entrusted with the firm's bank account.

In August 2019, Liew befriended a friend known to her as “Benjamin” online, and they began chatting on WhatsApp.

Benjamin later asked Liew to be his girlfriend, but the woman rejected him, claiming she was attached. Benjamin later claimed that he was a pilot and promised to send her a parcel from Paris containing gifts and monies.

Liew initially declined the parcel but became curious and accepted the parcel at her office's premises.

On 26 August 2019, Liew was contacted by another person known as “Kian”. Kian told her that he was from a company known as “Open Wings Global Express Service” and that she had a parcel from Benjamin.

Kian asked her to make payment as the parcel was overweight. To do so, Liew withdrew $3,600 and deposited the amount to an account provided by Kian. She then learned from him that she would receive a parcel containing cash amounting to EUR370,000 (S$592,603).

"Upon learning of this, the accused felt happy and became greedy that she would receive EUR370,000 in the parcel," the prosecution said. She was later told there were other branded goods and jewellery in the parcel. Benjamin later told the accused that there were other branded items and jewellery in the parcel.

On 27 August 2019, Kian told Liew that she had to pay further sums for "taxes and other expenses" for the parcel to arrive in Singapore.

While speaking to Kian on the phone, Liew thought that his voice sounded like Benjamin's. She confronted Benjamin about this, but was assured that Benjamin and Kian were two different people.

She started siphoning monies from her companies' bank accounts to pay for what Kian claimed was "insurance" or "storage".

In order to avoid detection, she transferred monies to various other intermediate bank accounts first, before transferring them to her personal bank account. She included a fake purpose in the details of the transactions to mask their true purpose. She would then withdraw the cash.

Between 26 August and 9 October 2019, Liew misappropriated $1,302,900 from McCoy and iConnexion.

While the director of iConnexion was on an overseas trip he received a call from Western Union asking for repayments for credit drawn by iConnexion.

The director said that iConnexion did not borrow any money and then contacted Liew to check on the matter. Liew claimed that it was a misunderstanding and that she would settle the issue. She believed that the monies could be repaid to the companies once she received the parcel.

When the director returned to Singapore on 1 October 2019, he received another call from Western Union and was informed that the monies had been transferred to Liew's personal bank account.

The director confronted Liew the next day and she admitted that she had misappropriated monies from the company for unauthorised purposes.

The director lodged a police report on 14 October 2019 after it became clear that Liew could not repay the sums, and that she had misappropriated more than she had initially admitted.

For committing criminal breach of trust as a servant, Liew could have been jailed up to 15 years and fined.

女子从两家公司骗取了130万美元，要求其向诈骗者索赔包裹

渴望得到一个恋爱者寄来的包裹，一名妇女从两家公司挪用了超过130万美元，以确保该包裹的安全。

现年43岁的Liew Bee Yee在2019年8月至2019年10月之间对一项混合指控违反信托作为仆人的刑事指控表示认罪后，于周三（3月10日）被判入狱六年。

犯罪时，她曾在McCoy和iConnexion Asia担任客户经理，这两家公司都是从事电子产品贸易的关联公司。

在Liew从其Western Union商业帐户中贷出款项并将其资金转入她的个人帐户后，这些公司目前正面临Western Union的法律诉讼。

Liew的律师Genith Lim和Simon Tan将他们的客户描述为“简单，天真，不老练的女士”，由于她的信任性质，她成为骗局的牺牲品。

她的律师说，当刘某有伴侣时，单身女人爱上了一个骗她的人，并被他“蒙蔽”。

Liew被McCoy雇用了大约十年，并于2015年晋升为客户经理。她被委托给该公司的银行账户。

在2019年8月，Liew在网上与一个被她称为“本杰明”的朋友结为朋友，他们开始在WhatsApp上聊天。

本杰明后来让刘某成为他的女友，但那名妇女拒绝了他，称她已被依恋。本杰明后来声称自己是一名飞行员，并答应从巴黎寄给她一个包裹，里面有礼物和款项。

Liew最初拒绝了包裹，但感到好奇并在她办公室的地方接受了包裹。

2019年8月26日，另一名被称为“ Kian”的人联系了Liew。Kian告诉她，他来自一家名为“ Open Wings Global Express Service”的公司，她从本杰明（Benjamin）那里拿了一个包裹。

由于包裹超重，Kian要求她付款。为此，Liew提取了$ 3,600并将其存入Kian提供的帐户中。然后，她从他那里得知，她将收到一个包含现金的包裹，总额为370,000欧元（592,603新元）。

控方说：“得知此事后，被告感到很高兴，并很高兴她将收到37万欧元的包裹。” 后来她被告知包裹中还有其他品牌商品和珠宝。本杰明后来告诉被告，包裹中还有其他品牌的商品和珠宝。

2019年8月27日，Kian告诉Liew，她必须进一步支付“税金和其他费用”，以使包裹到达新加坡。

在电话上与Kian通话时，Liew认为他的声音听起来像本杰明的声音。她为此事与本杰明面对面，但向她保证本杰明和凯恩是两个不同的人。

她开始从公司的银行帐户中提取款项，以支付Kian所说的“保险”或“存储”费用。

为了避免被发现，她先将款项转移到其他各种中间银行帐户，然后再将其转移到个人银行帐户。她在交易细节中包含了虚假目的，以掩盖其真实目的。然后，她将提取现金。

在2019年8月26日至10月9日期间，Liew从McCoy和iConnexion挪用了1,302,900美元。

当iConnexion的主管出国旅行时，他接到西联汇款的电话，要求偿还iConnexion提取的信贷。

主任说，iConnexion没有借钱，然后联系了Liew检查此事。Liew声称这是一个误会，她会解决这个问题。她认为，一旦收到包裹，这笔钱就可以偿还给公司。

董事于2019年10月1日返回新加坡时，他接到西联汇款的另一通电话，并获悉款项已转入Liew的个人银行账户中。

董事第二天与刘某面对面，她承认自己出于未经授权的目的挪用了公司的款项。

局长在刘晓波显然无法偿还这笔款项，并且她挪用的资金超过了她最初承认的数额之后，于2019年10月14日提交了警方报告。

廖某因犯有违反公务员的信任罪而被判入狱15年，并处以罚款。