UNIDENTIFIED CUSTOMERS BUY GOLD
On Sep 15, 2023, an elderly woman wearing a face mask visited Kim Heng and said that she wanted to buy 200g to 300g of gold on behalf of her son.
An employee, Ms Kang Yit Hooi, showed her several pieces of gold jewellery. The woman took photos of the jewellery and purportedly sent them to her son over the phone.
The woman then told Ms Kang she wanted to buy a gold rope chain worth S$28,000 and would pay through PayNow.
When Ms Kang processed the payment, she noticed that the payor was an entity called Globe Eximport, which had a unique entity number.
This was in fact a compromised corporate account, Mr Tan told the court.
He said that Ms Kang had reason to suspect money laundering given the large transaction amount and the corporate identity of the payor, when the customer and the person who purportedly instructed the customer to buy gold were both natural persons.
However, Ms Kang did not perform the required customer due diligence.
The next day, the elderly woman’s supposed son contacted Ms Kang on WhatsApp and said that he wanted to buy more gold.
When Ms Kang said she was not working and that her colleagues may not be able to attend to him, he insisted that he needed to buy gold that day and that his supposed mother would pick up the purchases.
Ms Kang referred the customers to her colleague, Ms Sheila Lo Mohd Miza.
The elderly woman returned to the shop later that day and Ms Lo showed her several pieces of jewellery. She bought six gold chains and a gold pendant worth S$173,295.
When the woman paid through PayNow, Ms Lo also noticed that the payor was Globe Eximport, and had reason to suspect money laundering, said Mr Tan.
“At the time, (Ms Lo’s) concern was to ensure that the transaction went through and that the accused did not get cheated.
“(Ms Kang) did not ask any questions either for fear of getting scolded by (the two customers) and losing their business,” said the prosecutor.
On Oct 2, 2023, the supposed son contacted Ms Kang again to buy a gold bar and a gold chain valued at S$112,332.
When Ms Kang was carrying out the transaction, the man repeatedly pestered her to process the payments more quickly. Once again, she did not carry out due diligence checks.
The man contacted Ms Kang one more time on Oct 3, 2023 to buy more gold, and his supposed mother went to the shop to collect the purchases again.
But this time, Mr Ho decided to ask the elderly woman for her identity card. The woman responded that she had to use the restroom, and left the shop without returning.
The identities of the elderly woman and the man – the purported mother and son – have yet to be established.
The matter came to light after reports were lodged over the malware scams.
