SINGAPORE: As a favour for a fellow maid, a domestic helper transferred more than S$116,000 (US$91,193) to a Thai bank account, but part of the money turned out to be the proceeds of internet love scams.
Galvez Mary Joe Blanco, the maid who carried out the transfer, was given 40 days’ jail, according to a judgment made available over the weekend.
Galvez, 36, had pleaded guilty to one charge of transferring S$116,154.51 from her POSB account to a Kasikornbank account in May 2024.
She was accused of failing to take reasonable steps to ascertain the destination of the money.
According to court papers, Galvez worked in a household with another maid – 57-year-old Filipino Maria Luz Suerte Lopez.
In May 2024, Maria received a friend request on TikTok from a person known as Alex Stillinger who introduced himself as personnel from the United States Army and began chatting with Maria on TikTok daily.
About two weeks after they started chatting, Alex asked Maria to help receive money that he had purportedly earned through gold investments.
Maria agreed, but said she did not have a bank account. She then turned to the accused, Galvez, for help.
According to the judgment, Maria told Galvez that a friend needed help to receive money from his gold investment business, and to remit it to a Thai bank account.
For each transaction Galvez helped with, she would receive “a small token sum”, the judgment stated.
Between May 15 and May 29 last year, Alex transferred a total of S$118,133 into Galvez’s POSB bank account.
Galvez then transferred about S$116,000 to a Kasikornbank bank account belonging to a person called “Saichit Jeremiah”.
Investigations later revealed that S$20,300 of this amount was directly traceable to scam proceeds from two victims.
VICTIMS WERE SINGAPOREAN WOMEN
Both victims are Singaporean women, aged 61 and 70, who fell for internet love scams and later lodged police reports. The 70-year-old woman had been scammed into transferring a total of S$108,500, but only a small sum was in the amount funnelled through Galvez. The rest was dissipated into other bank accounts.
Galvez was arrested in October 2024. She surrendered S$1,151.50, which was what she earned from the arrangement. No other funds were recovered from her bank account.
The prosecution sought five to six-and-a-half months’ jail for Galvez, saying that a critical component that allows sophisticated organised criminal groups to commit scams is offenders based in Singapore like Galvez.
Galvez’s lawyer, Mr Danny Quah from CHP Law, sought a report to assess Galvez for probation, or a fine of S$3,780.
This was five times Galvez’ monthly salary.
Mr Quah later asked for two to three weeks’ jail if the court was going to impose jail instead.
In mitigation, he said Galvez was “a naive individual who thought she was being kind and helpful but was instead tricked and manipulated by her fellow domestic helper into facilitating the transfer of monies from her bank account”.
District Judge Crystal Goh noted the gravity of scam-related offences and the public interest in suppressing scams, but noted that Galvez did not relinquish control of her bank account in this case.
Maria pleaded guilty separately and was given five months’ jail.
Galvez filed a notice of appeal against her 40-day jail sentence and is on bail pending the hearing.
