SINGAPORE: An employee who had sole access to documents for staff payrolls edited the spreadsheets so that cryptocurrencies or fiat payments would be paid into her e-wallet and bank accounts.
In this manner, Ho Kai Xin managed to cheat a company out of more than S$5.5 million (US$4.1 million) worth of United States Dollar Tether (USDT) – the world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency which is pegged to the US dollar – and fiat currency.
The 32-year-old Singaporean then spent the money on upgrading her home, car and the purchase of luxury items, insurance policies and investment plans.
Ho was sentenced to nine years and 11 months’ jail on Thursday (Feb 20) after she pleaded guilty to 14 charges, comprising cheating, concealing or transferring benefits from criminal conduct, and for furnishing false information to the police.
Another 30 charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for her sentencing.
Ho was employed by Wechain Fintech Singapore to process payroll from Oct 20, 2021 to Oct 6, 2022.
Wechain provided payroll services to ByBit Fintech, a company which owns and operates a namesake cryptocurrency exchange. The company paid employees in fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, or a mix of both.
Ho was tasked with maintaining three spreadsheets which contained the salary details of 800 to 900 ByBit employees. Two of these contained details of fiat payments to employees, while the third held details of the employees’ designated cryptocurrency wallet addresses where they received their renumeration in cryptocurrency.
Ho would update the three spreadsheets each month before sending them to a supervisor for approval. The supervisor would typically approve the spreadsheets, trusting Ho to be accurate, before payments were disbursed.
To cheat the company, Ho would insert rows of payment in the cryptocurrency spreadsheet that would be made to one of the four electronic wallets she owned.
She inserted names of ByBit employees to disguise the fact that the wallets belonged to her.
Ho would send a redacted copy of the spreadsheet to ByBit’s finance department. Details that could lead to the identification of the employees were normally redacted.
Ho would also amend the spreadsheet for fiat payments, inserting bogus payments to herself such as a “sign-on bonus” of S$100,000.
Upon receiving the money from ByBit in her electronic wallets, Ho would transfer a fraction of the money into the first wallet and then transfer some of the cryptocurrency into fiat currency, and into bank accounts.
Her actions came to light on Sep 7, 2022, when a finance director in Wechain noticed unusually large cryptocurrency payments keyed into the spreadsheet.
Wechain started internal investigations into the matter and Ho lied that the wallet addresses had been entered in error.
She then amended one digit in each of the wallet addresses to throw off investigations.
When Ho was interviewed by her supervisor, she pinned the blame on a fictitious maternal cousin, Jason Teo, who was supposedly an 26-year-old unmarried man serving national service in need of money. She lied that this cousin could have used the money on drugs.
The police drew up Ho’s family tree and spent 140 hours trying to identify Jason Teo before discovering that he did not exist.
ByBit subsequently filed a civil suit against Ho and sought an order for the return of money or traceable proceeds, or for payment of a sum equivalent in value. The High Court ruled in favour of ByBit, but it only managed to recover a portion of its funds.
A police report was filed against Ho on Feb 28, 2023.
In total, Ho cheated ByBit of 4,209,720 USDT and S$117,237.46, totalling S$5,710,187.38.
During the civil suit against her and Wechain’s internal investigations, Ho continued to use the ill-gotten funds to live a lavish lifestyle, even though the High Court had ordered her not to use the funds.
She cancelled her Build-to-Order flat and placed a downpayment on a S$3.7 million luxury freehold penthouse.
She purchased a Mercedes Benz car with the stolen funds, but later traded that in to buy a more expensive car of the same brand.
She also bought multiple items from Louis Vuitton, insurance policies and investment plans.
For disobeying the court order, Ho was handed six weeks’ jail for contempt of court on Jan 27, 2025. She will serve this jail term on top of her sentence passed on Thursday.
In mitigation, Ho’s lawyer James Gomez Jovian Messiah raised Ho’s family circumstances.
“We are instructed that our client is a family-oriented individual who has always worked hard to provide a good future for her children and family,” the lawyer said.
Ho’s childhood was marked by financial struggles and she has vowed to look after her family and provide for them, he said. Her husband is a canteen operator.
“Our client was never financially well to do and had always looked forward to a brighter future,” Mr Gomez said.
