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Man gets two years’ jail for duping three in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Feb 3 — Promising monthly profits of S$30,000 (RM 88,832.72) for investing in a coffee shop business, a freelance driver managed to cheat a childhood friend of over S$26,000. When he was nabbed by the police in a routine check, investigations found that Karuppiah Kaneshan, 56, had pulled off similar scams in the past.

For cheating three victims a total of S$102,700, Karuppiah was yesterday sentenced to two years’ jail.

Karuppiah was convicted of three counts of cheating, with seven other charges taken into consideration.

A district court heard that Karuppiah had met up with childhood friend Ramachandran T S Nayar in January 2013 to interest him in investing in a “coffee shop business that promised good returns”.

Although Ramachandran was not interested initially, Karuppiah persisted and approached his friend two months later.

He tried to entice Ramachandran by promising a monthly profit of S$30,000 with an initial investment of S$50,000. This time, Karuppiah succeeded in duping his friend.

Court documents showed that Ramachandran gave Karuppiah S$26,500 over five occasions between March and July 2013 as “investments” into the scam business. Although Ramanchandran lodged a police report in April 2014, Karuppiah was arrested only seven months later, for failing to produce his identity card during a routine police check in Yishun, where he lives. Karuppiah had fallen down while trying to flee from the police and was apprehended.

Investigations revealed that Karuppiah had committed similar cheating offences in 2004 and 2011. In May 2011, Karuppiah, riddled with losses from betting on horse-racing and soccer, was introduced to Vietnamese national Thai Thi Hong Hau, 33, the director of a Vietnamese real estate company.

Thai had told Karuppiah that she had a project in Vietnam which needed US$10 million (RM42.351 million) to finance.

Passing himself off as a representative from the International Finance Corporation Australia (IFC), Karuppiah assured Thai that he was able to provide funding for her project. Karuppiah then instructed a friend to prepare a “Memorandum of Understanding” with an IFC header, stating that Thai had to pay him US$40,000 in “processing fees” to “activate” the transfer of the funds.

The two parties signed the “MOU” on July 20, 2011 and Thai transferred US$40,000 to Karuppiah via cheque and cash. Shortly after, she paid him another sum of US$6,000 in “taxes”.

When she failed to hear from Karuppiah after several months, Thai grew suspicious and demanded a refund. When Karuppiah failed to do so, she lodged a police report. Karuppiah later admitted that he had spent the money on personal expenses.

Karuppiah got acquainted with his first victim Tan Hung Yeoh in October 2003. Seven months later, he offered to help Tan set up a bank account with ABN AMRO Private Banking, also claiming that Tan would first have to set up an account with another bank, and deposit S$10,000 each in both accounts before he could enjoy relevant facilities. Tan handed him S$20,000 in April 2004.

Karuppiah could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating. — TODAY

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