SINGAPORE: A woman has admitted in court that she did not know the sources of hundreds of millions of dollars that were transferred to her firm’s three corporate bank accounts.
On Wednesday (March 5), Zin Nwe Nyunt, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of working together with a male Myanmar national, who was her husband’s childhood friend, to carry out a business of providing a payment service in Singapore without a licence.
The Singaporean woman will be sentenced on April 1.
After incorporating a wholesale trading firm, called Unione, and opening its three corporate bank accounts, she earned “commissions” totalling more than $170,000.
Nyan Win, the man she worked with, received more than $110,000 in “commissions”. The 60-year-old Singapore permanent resident had earlier pleaded guilty to similar charges. He will be sentenced on April 24.
In total, Unione’s bank accounts received over US$531 million (S$711 million) in 2020 and 2021.
The offences came to light in August 2021 when the police received information that an Australian investment scam victim had transferred US$1.8 million to several bank accounts maintained by companies in Singapore.
Three of the companies later transferred more than $480,000 to a bank account belonging to Unione.
In 2019, a Myanmar national known as Ko Phillip, who “operated a commodities trading business”, told Nyan Win, that he was looking for someone to incorporate a company in Singapore to assist in the operations of Ko Phillip’s business.
The company in Singapore would then create corporate bank accounts which would be used to receive and transfer funds on Ko Phillip’s instructions.
Under this arrangement, he offered Nyan Win a commission of 0.5 Myanmar kyat (S$0.0003) for every US$1 received.
Nyan Win was interested in this opportunity. However, he was uncertain whether he could set up a corporate bank account through Piyar International, a company that dealt with motor vehicles where he was a director.
Without revealing details, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim said this was because banks had previously closed Piyar’s corporate bank accounts.
Nyan Win then approached Zin Nwe Nyunt’s husband and told him about this potential business opportunity with Ko Phillip. Court documents stated that the two men were childhood friends.
As the husband was holding a full-time job, he suggested that Zin Nwe Nyunt assist in the new firm’s incorporation instead.
It was later agreed between Zin Nwe Nyunt and Nyan Win that the corporate bank accounts would be controlled by Nyan Win. Commissions would then be split between the pair.
Zin Nwe Nyunt incorporated Unione and, at different times, opened one corporate account each with three banks.
She then handed over items including the internet banking details to Nyan Win.
The DPP said: “Across 2020 and 2021, Nyan Win would liaise with Phillip to make arrangements for money to be received into Unione’s corporate bank accounts.
“Nyan Win would also receive instructions from Phillip on where to transfer the money once it had been received into the bank accounts.”
The prosecutor said Zin Nwe Nyunt and Nyan Win did not know where the funds came from.
The pair also did not perform any checks to ascertain the nature of the funds received or the legitimacy of Ko Philip’s claims that he was operating a commodities business.
Between January and July 2020, Nyan Win used one of Unione’s bank accounts to receive more than US$150 million before the money was transferred out.
On July 21, 2020, the bank closed the account due to a large number of suspicious transactions.
The DPP told the court: “Zin, Nyan Win and Unione did not have in force a valid licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and were not an exempt payment service provider.”
Following the closure of this account, Zin Nwe Nyunt took instructions from Nyan Win and opened a corporate account with another bank
Between July 2020 and April 2021, Nyan Win used this new account to receive more than US$250 million before the money was transferred out.
DPP Lim said that between August 18, 2020, and March 24, 2021, a third bank account was used to receive more than US$127 million and over US$119 million was transferred out.
The offences came to light in August 2021, after which Zin Nwe Nyunt and Nyan Win were charged in court in 2023. - The Straits Times/ANN
