Jail for two S’porean men who laundered money for Malaysian criminal syndicate

SINGAPORE – Two Singaporean men who were part of a trio that laundered money for a Malaysian syndicate were sentenced to jail on Sept 30.

Low Zhi Wei, 36, and Dillon Jang Wei Hong, 28, were sentenced to 72 months and 79 months’ jail respectively.

Jang was also fined $15,000.

Both men pleaded guilty to three charges each, including charges for retaining the benefits of criminal conduct and being in a member of an organised criminal group.

The third man, Shuek Jin Hui, 37, still has a case before the courts.

Court documents stated that Low and Shuek were childhood friends. Shuek got to know Jang in 2022 through cryptocurrency trading.

In 2023, Jang asked Shuek if he had any avenues to make money. Shuek allegedly said that he needed to convert money received in his bank account into cryptocurrency.

In return, he offered Jang a monthly commission of $1,000.

Jang would help Shuek convert the money that he received in his bank account into cryptocurrency. This would then be transferred to a cryptocurrency wallet provided by Shuek.

As a result of this arrangement, Jang was investigated in October 2023 after scam proceeds were received in one of his bank accounts.

Before giving his statement to the police, Shuek instructed Jang to blame an unknown person who allegedly deposited the money into his bank account.

Jang lied to the police that he did not know the source of the money, and that he was a bona fide cryptocurrency trader, even though he suspected that scam proceeds were flowing through his bank accounts.

Following the investigation, Jang told Shuek that he no longer wanted to use his personal bank accounts to trade cryptocurrency for unknown persons.

Shuek allegedly proposed that they continue with the arangement, but with Jang using local bank accounts relinquished by others.

Shuek purportedly got his runners to deliver mobile phones and SIM cards to Jang, who met other people to gain access to their bank and cryptocurrency accounts using these phones.

The accounts were later used by foreign syndicates to launder money from criminal activities.

Between January and February 2024, Jang, Shuek and two others travelled to Johor Bahru to meet a person who worked for a Malaysian criminal syndicate.

Under Shuek’s directions, they planned to market their services which involved laundering money using bank and cryptocurrency accounts.

Jang demonstrated how money could be transferred from his bank account and converted into cryptocurrency.

Thereafter, Shuek and Jang agreed to work with the Malaysian syndicate.

In July 2024, Low joined them as he needed to clear his debts.

The three men worked together to provide money laundering services to unknown persons from Malaysia.

Low and Shuek would find people who were willing to relinquish their local bank and cryptocurrency accounts, and then refer them to Jang, who opened and linked the accounts.

Low found these money mules on Telegram, and offered to pay them for giving up their accounts. He was promised $100 for every referral.

Jang would meet the money mules, who would open bank and crytocurrency accounts using their Singpass, and carry out facial verification authentication on mobile phones provided by the Malaysian syndicate.

There were at least 20 of such phones in circulation, according to the court documents.

Once the money mule’s bank or cryptocurrency account was frozen, the phone would be sent back to the syndicate for a factory reset.

Jang mostly took instructions from Shuek, who was purportedly in contact with the Malaysian syndicate.

Jang received a total of $15,000 from Shuek in commissions, which were delivered by a runner.

From July to Nov 1, 2024, several scam victims lodged police reports, claiming they had been asked to transfer money to bank accounts that were traced to the trio.

Jang was arrested on Aug 22 that year at home, where police seized over 40 mobile phones, a cash counting machine and more than 60 SIM cards.

Low and Shuek were arrested on the same day at Woodlands Checkpoint, where they were trying to flee Singapore.

More than $29,000 in cash was seized from the pair.

At the time of their arrest, the trio controlled at least 40 Singapore bank accounts. Police reports from scam victims were linked to 28 of these accounts.

Transfers from these scam victims amounted to more than $1.2 million.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Zhou Yang and Kenneth Ng sought a sentence of 93 to 101.5 months’ jail for Jang, and 83 months and two weeks to 95 months and one week’s jail for Low.

Low’s lawyer, Gavin Neo from WongPartnership argued that Low was the least culpable of the three.

Neo said that Low was the most junior member of the group, and played a limited role unlike Jang and Shuek.

The lawyer also argued that the monetary gain Low received paled in comparison to what Jang received.

Jang’s lawyer, Low Hui Hui from Crossborders, said his client continued laundering money as he was persuaded by the ringleader, Shuek.

He also said Jang had no contact with the syndicate, as he only received instructions from Shuek and Low.