Woman, 70, jailed for acting as money mule for man she believed to be her romantic partner

Woman, 70, jailed for acting as money mule for man she believed to be her romantic partner At least S$2,000 came from the victim of a love scam. SINGAPORE: A 70-year-old woman was jailed for 10 weeks on Monday (Jul 13) for helping to receive more than S$38,000 (US$29,400) from a man she believed was her romantic partner. At least S$2,000 of his sum was later traced to a victim of a love scam. Christina Cheong Yoke Lin pleaded guilty to one count of entering into an arrangement to receive money without ascertaining its source. Cheong was herself the target of a love scam years prior and was sentenced to a mandatory treatment order in 2019 for offences linked to that episode, where she tricked the scammer and retained S$50,000. THE CASE The court heard that Cheong was a course coordinator with a consultancy company at the time of the new offence. She was given a conditional warning in June 2023 for helping an unknown person receive money in her bank account. This money was derived from scams. The police warned Cheong not to help any other person receive money from unknown or dubious sources in her bank account. In September 2024, a person contacted Cheong on Instagram, introducing himself as "Liam". He claimed to be an engineer working on an oil rig and began chatting with Cheong daily on Telegram. Through their conversations, he appeared to show care and concern for her and told Cheong that he wanted to come to Singapore to be with her. Cheong came to believe that Liam was her romantic partner. In November 2024, Liam asked for help to open an account on cryptocurrency website Coinbase. He said it was to receive money from his company to fund repairs on the oil rig, claiming he could not access a local bank account while on the rig. Believing him, Cheong opened a Coinbase account in her name and sent Liam the login credentials and the two-factor authentication code. Liam then asked her to use her DBS bank account to receive money sent purportedly by friends and secretaries from his company. She was to wait for his instructions to transfer the funds to the Coinbase account and use the money to buy Bitcoin. From Dec 11 to Dec 16 in 2024, Cheong received S$38,100 in her bank account over seven transactions and transferred the money to other accounts. Of this, at least S$2,000 was laundered criminal proceeds obtained from a love scam victim. Cheong's bank account was frozen in late December 2024. The prosecution sought three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half months' jail but noted that Cheong had not received any financial gain. The defence sought two months' jail, saying Cheong is motivated to move on with her life. She used to work in education and intends to continue doing so and is looking forward to giving back to society, said the lawyer. He added that Cheong is struggling financially and cannot make restitution. The judge said he agreed with the defence that this case fell under the "slight harm" category instead of "moderate harm" as claimed by the prosecution. For entering into an arrangement to receive money without ascertaining its source, she could have been jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$50,000, or both.