SINGAPORE: For over two years, a man carried out a string of deceptions aimed at cheating thousands of dollars from various parties, including a law firm, shopping mall ION Orchard, and luxury hotel Amara Sanctuary Sentosa.
Chin Tung Sheng's lengthy list of offences included forging numerous documents and receiving stolen property.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old led the high life, uploading numerous photos of himself dressed in branded clothing and attending luxury brand events on his Instagram account. Chin was also pictured with other known personalities on his social media page.
Called an influencer by several media outlets, Chin's Instagram account has around 334,000 followers. However his account appears dormant, with his last post in November 2021.
According to a Yahoo Finance report in 2021, Chin was a private investor working with banks, owned an entertainment and asset management company, and was a director of Singapore-based Grey Solutions.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to seven charges on Friday (Mar 7), admitting to offences in a court document that spanned 16 pages and took a while to read out in court.
The seven charges constitute cheating, forgery, housebreaking and dishonestly obtaining services.
Another nine charges that also involve deception will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced.
Chin cheated two business partners into thinking that he had connections to the Singapore government and had strong financial backing.
He also made them believe that he was the CEO of a company. This led to them starting a company to import and export COVID-19 test kits.
In 2020, Chin arranged to purchase millions of masks for hospitals in the United States.
As the transaction involved a large quantity of medical supplies, Chin had to show that his company had sufficient funds, in part by having a law firm prepare a letter of attestation.
To obtain this letter, Chin submitted forged documents to the law firm, including a bank statement and screenshot showing a balance of more than S$1 billion (S$752 million).
Another letter of reference he forged stated another bank account had a balance of nearly S$10 billion.
As part of the process, Chin also submitted a forged letter from the Prime Minister's Office, thanking him for his efforts in helping Singapore provide medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had got this letter from his previous company, but changed its contents so that the letter was addressed to him.
Around six people lodged police reports against Chin over the deception. Some of them conducted checks that revealed discrepancies in what Chin had told them.
Chin was initially given a 24-month conditional warning on Jan 8, 2021 for these offences, but was prosecuted on them when he committed a subsequent crime.
Between Aug, 30, 2020 and Apr 9, 2021, Chin redeemed vouchers from ION Orchard using fake receipts on at least 96 occasions.
He made use of a loyalty programme where registered members are rewarded with points when they spend at the mall.
Members could earn points by uploading a photo of a receipt showing the expenditure, and Chin used this method to cheat ION Orchard.
A staff member discovered suspicious receipts submitted across various member accounts, finding that the receipts were mostly from Louis Vuitton's cash register, and were mainly high-value transactions. All were submitted through multiple new member accounts.
Closed circuit television footage of the voucher redemption process showed that 26 of the newly created member's accounts were redeemed by the same person, and Louis Vuitton verified that no such sale transactions had taken place.
The 26 accounts were each linked to different email addresses and mobile numbers, but all were traced back to Chin.
In total, S$76,984.80 worth of vouchers were dispensed to Chin and none were recovered. Investigations did not show whether Chin had used the vouchers.
During his check-in process at Amara Sanctuary Sentosa, Chin forged a fictitious screenshot to show that he had paid S$13,268.05 for a stay from Jul 19, 2022 to Jul 31, 2022.
The receptionist at the hotel took a photo of the edited image and passed the keys to Chin, who stayed at the room with his girlfriend.
On the second day of Chin's stay, a finance manager at the hotel noticed that the payment had not gone through.
He spoke to Chin, who insisted that payment had been made. Chin provided a bank statement in support of his payment a few days later.
When payment still did not go through, the finance manager inspected the bank statement and found that it was doctored.
On Jul 27, 2022, after verifying that Chin was still in his hotel room, the finance manager called the police, who arrested Chin.
Separately, Chin also doctored an image of a PayNow transaction for a foodpanda delivery that cost S$62.98, on Jul 21, 2022. This was while Chin was still staying at the hotel.
The foodpanda delivery rider lodged a police report after he did not receive payment, and after foodpanda had deducted the sum from his e-wallet.
Chin also obtained Louis Vuitton items worth around S$80,000 from a bungalow in Sentosa, which he expressed interest in renting.
Chin responded to an advertisement for the rental of the bungalow and arranged for a viewing on Oct 6, 2023.
Thereafter, Chin made use of a passcode at the front door or the backdoor that he had unlocked during a house tour to break into the house.
After his first visit, Chin arranged for others to collect Louis Vuitton merchandise that were kept in the property.
A man who collected a trunk paid S$14,000 for it, and also bought two Louis Vuitton boxes.
He was spotted around the property outside viewing hours by workers engaged to conduct repair works.
Chin subsequently hired a private hire vehicle driver to help him load a Louis Vuitton trunk in his car.
This trunk was unloaded at another house along Ocean Drive which Chin also broke into. The item was then sold for S$12,000 in December 2023.
In total, two trunks, two suitcases, two small boxes, and two rabbit displays went missing from the house.
A contractor engaged to repair the property lodged a report after discovering the items missing from a pyramid arrangement of Louis Vuitton suitcases he had to dismantle in order to conduct his work.
In court, Chin's lawyer Suang Wijaya said his client had committed the crimes during a period when he was suffering an "extremely significant setback to his financial, economic situation and his career".
He said his client had saved significant state and judicial resources by choosing to plead guilty.
Chin will be sentenced on Mar 19. He is currently in remand.
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Chin Tung Sheng's lengthy list of offences included forging numerous documents and receiving stolen property.
Meanwhile, the 26-year-old led the high life, uploading numerous photos of himself dressed in branded clothing and attending luxury brand events on his Instagram account. Chin was also pictured with other known personalities on his social media page.
Called an influencer by several media outlets, Chin's Instagram account has around 334,000 followers. However his account appears dormant, with his last post in November 2021.
According to a Yahoo Finance report in 2021, Chin was a private investor working with banks, owned an entertainment and asset management company, and was a director of Singapore-based Grey Solutions.
The Singaporean pleaded guilty to seven charges on Friday (Mar 7), admitting to offences in a court document that spanned 16 pages and took a while to read out in court.
The seven charges constitute cheating, forgery, housebreaking and dishonestly obtaining services.
Another nine charges that also involve deception will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced.
FORGED DOCUMENTS
Chin cheated two business partners into thinking that he had connections to the Singapore government and had strong financial backing.
He also made them believe that he was the CEO of a company. This led to them starting a company to import and export COVID-19 test kits.
In 2020, Chin arranged to purchase millions of masks for hospitals in the United States.
As the transaction involved a large quantity of medical supplies, Chin had to show that his company had sufficient funds, in part by having a law firm prepare a letter of attestation.
To obtain this letter, Chin submitted forged documents to the law firm, including a bank statement and screenshot showing a balance of more than S$1 billion (S$752 million).
Another letter of reference he forged stated another bank account had a balance of nearly S$10 billion.
As part of the process, Chin also submitted a forged letter from the Prime Minister's Office, thanking him for his efforts in helping Singapore provide medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had got this letter from his previous company, but changed its contents so that the letter was addressed to him.
Around six people lodged police reports against Chin over the deception. Some of them conducted checks that revealed discrepancies in what Chin had told them.
Chin was initially given a 24-month conditional warning on Jan 8, 2021 for these offences, but was prosecuted on them when he committed a subsequent crime.
CHEATED ION ORCHARD OF VOUCHERS
Between Aug, 30, 2020 and Apr 9, 2021, Chin redeemed vouchers from ION Orchard using fake receipts on at least 96 occasions.
He made use of a loyalty programme where registered members are rewarded with points when they spend at the mall.
Members could earn points by uploading a photo of a receipt showing the expenditure, and Chin used this method to cheat ION Orchard.
A staff member discovered suspicious receipts submitted across various member accounts, finding that the receipts were mostly from Louis Vuitton's cash register, and were mainly high-value transactions. All were submitted through multiple new member accounts.
Closed circuit television footage of the voucher redemption process showed that 26 of the newly created member's accounts were redeemed by the same person, and Louis Vuitton verified that no such sale transactions had taken place.
The 26 accounts were each linked to different email addresses and mobile numbers, but all were traced back to Chin.
In total, S$76,984.80 worth of vouchers were dispensed to Chin and none were recovered. Investigations did not show whether Chin had used the vouchers.
CHEATED LUXURY HOTEL STAY
During his check-in process at Amara Sanctuary Sentosa, Chin forged a fictitious screenshot to show that he had paid S$13,268.05 for a stay from Jul 19, 2022 to Jul 31, 2022.
The receptionist at the hotel took a photo of the edited image and passed the keys to Chin, who stayed at the room with his girlfriend.
On the second day of Chin's stay, a finance manager at the hotel noticed that the payment had not gone through.
He spoke to Chin, who insisted that payment had been made. Chin provided a bank statement in support of his payment a few days later.
When payment still did not go through, the finance manager inspected the bank statement and found that it was doctored.
On Jul 27, 2022, after verifying that Chin was still in his hotel room, the finance manager called the police, who arrested Chin.
Separately, Chin also doctored an image of a PayNow transaction for a foodpanda delivery that cost S$62.98, on Jul 21, 2022. This was while Chin was still staying at the hotel.
The foodpanda delivery rider lodged a police report after he did not receive payment, and after foodpanda had deducted the sum from his e-wallet.
BROKE INTO SENTOSA PRIVATE PROPERTY
Chin also obtained Louis Vuitton items worth around S$80,000 from a bungalow in Sentosa, which he expressed interest in renting.
Chin responded to an advertisement for the rental of the bungalow and arranged for a viewing on Oct 6, 2023.
Thereafter, Chin made use of a passcode at the front door or the backdoor that he had unlocked during a house tour to break into the house.
After his first visit, Chin arranged for others to collect Louis Vuitton merchandise that were kept in the property.
A man who collected a trunk paid S$14,000 for it, and also bought two Louis Vuitton boxes.
He was spotted around the property outside viewing hours by workers engaged to conduct repair works.
Chin subsequently hired a private hire vehicle driver to help him load a Louis Vuitton trunk in his car.
This trunk was unloaded at another house along Ocean Drive which Chin also broke into. The item was then sold for S$12,000 in December 2023.
In total, two trunks, two suitcases, two small boxes, and two rabbit displays went missing from the house.
A contractor engaged to repair the property lodged a report after discovering the items missing from a pyramid arrangement of Louis Vuitton suitcases he had to dismantle in order to conduct his work.
In court, Chin's lawyer Suang Wijaya said his client had committed the crimes during a period when he was suffering an "extremely significant setback to his financial, economic situation and his career".
He said his client had saved significant state and judicial resources by choosing to plead guilty.
Chin will be sentenced on Mar 19. He is currently in remand.
Continue reading...