Man admits to cheating ‘sugar babies’ as young as 13 for nude photos and videos

SINGAPORE: A man hatched a plan to cheat women and girls into giving him explicit photos and sexual services by promising to pay them, and then reneging on what he owed.

Hee Lic Yuan, who was a business analyst in a bank at the time of his offences from 2019 to 2021, exploited 31 victims using this method.

He would approach the victims online and ask them to be his “sugar babies”, offering payment for explicit photos and videos. He also obtained sexual services from some of the victims.

Hee, now 32, faces a total of 59 charges. He pleaded guilty to 15 charges on Tuesday (Jan 7), with the remaining charges to be taken into consideration.

He will return to court for sentencing on Feb 5.

The 15 charges that the prosecution proceeded with include sexual penetration of minors, communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services, producing child abuse material, exploitative sexual communication with minors, threatening to distribute intimate images of victims, and obtaining services fraudulently.

The court heard details of these offences, which involved 11 different victims aged between 13 and 20 years old.

Before 2020, Hee paid for nude photos and sexual services with females aged 16 to 20. He also took voyeuristic photos at his workplace, on public transport and from his bedroom window.

When Hee set out to scam victims, he created multiple Instagram, TikTok and Telegram accounts, and used these to send messages to females.

He would pose as a wealthy man looking for a sugar baby, and quote prices for explicit photos or videos, even though he did not intend to pay the victims.

He would pin a tally to the top of his Telegram conversation with each victim to keep track of the money he owed, and promised to pay her on a particular day each month.

SEXUAL ASSAULTS

One of Hee’s victims was a 15-year-old girl identified in court documents as V1.

On Mar 10, 2021, V1’s friend showed her a screenshot of an Instagram conversation about a sugar baby arrangement.

As V1 needed money, she sent a message to Hee’s Instagram account as seen in the screenshot to express her interest in being a sugar baby.

Hee contacted V1 on Telegram and claimed he would pay her once a month for naked photos and videos of herself. V1 agreed to this.

He then quoted a price of S$200 to S$400 for each nude photo. V1 sent him about 10 nude photos of herself and was promised S$3,500 in payment.

The next day, Hee offered V1 S$4,000 for sex, and she agreed. He also told her he would not be paying her for their first session as it was a “trial”.

V1 went to Hee’s house at night, and he sexually assaulted her while recording videos of the acts.

Over roughly the next week, V1 sent about 10 more explicit photos and nine explicit videos of herself at Hee’s request.

On Mar 19, 2021, Hee asked V1 to have a “threesome” with him and another man. When she rejected him, he told her that he would not pay her if she did not agree.

V1 called the police the next day to report that she had been sexually assaulted.

Hee also sexually assaulted another girl V2, who was 15 or 16 years old at the time, in May 2019, after initiating a conversation with her on Instagram.

YOUNGEST VICTIM WAS 13

Hee’s youngest victim was a 13-year-old girl identified in court documents as V7.

In January 2021, Hee sent V7 an Instagram message asking if she wanted to be his sugar baby. V7 told him her age.

Hee asked V7 for nude photos in exchange for money. He also sent her photos of other women so she could copy their poses.

V7 sent about 20 explicit photos of herself – Hee had said he would pay her several thousands of dollars for them.

When V7 said she did not want to send any more photos, Hee said he would not pay her and threatened to distribute her nude photos to her Instagram followers.

Distressed and scared, V7 stopped replying to Hee. Two weeks later, he sent her another threatening message, but she still refused to send more photos of herself.

When V7 asked Hee if he intended to follow through on his threat, he said he did not intend to, and their conversation ended.

EXPLOITED VICTIM FOR MORE EXPLICIT IMAGES

Hee’s threats to distribute intimate images worked on another victim, 16-year-old V11, whom he started talking to on Mar 13, 2021.

V11 had a video call with Hee during which she removed her top.

Later, when V11 told him she was not comfortable continuing their arrangement, Hee sent a screenshot that showed she was topless and threatened to circulate it if she did not fulfil his requests.

He demanded multiple explicit photos and videos of V11, which she carried out.

When Hee said he would follow up with more requests, V11 said she did not want to continue and offered to introduce him to her friends to be his sugar babies instead.

While drunk, Hee responded threateningly for her not to “test my … patience” and also said “I promise on your life”. V11 made a police report on Mar 15, 2021.

CHILD ABUSE MATERIAL, CHEATING OFFENCES

Another young victim, V9, was 14 years old when Hee contacted her on Instagram and asked if she wanted to be his sugar baby.

Between Feb 20, 2021 and Mar 27, 2021, V9 sent Hee nude photos and videos of herself.

Hee also initiated two video calls with V9 during which he told her what to do while she was naked. He secretly recorded the video calls, thereby producing child abuse material.

In respect of three victims – 18-year-old V10, 19-year-old V8 and 20-year-old V6 – Hee admitted to offences of obtaining services fraudulently.

Hee obtained explicit images from V10 and V6 for which he was supposed to give them S$3,000 and S$1,500 respectively, but he did not make good on the payment.

Hee promised V8 S$10,000 for sexual acts that she performed on him, as well as payment for explicit photos, videos and a video call with her in 2021.

When V8 suspected that Hee was not going to pay her, she said she would report him to the police. He responded with a threat: “If I go down, you will go down too and there will be no case.”

V8 began to take screenshots of their conversation history, but Hee began deleting the messages and eventually his entire Telegram account. She was hence unable to track him down.