Man Cheated $1.18 Million by Using Ho Ching’s and DPM Heng’s Name

People are always looking for ideas to strike it rich. Some decided to put their trust in investments. Others invest in something a bit less complicated: Singapore Pools.

Then, there are a specific few who decide that the way to making it big is to trample on the dreams and savings of others.

And the fellow that we’re going to talk about next belongs firmly in the third group.

Man Cheated $1.18 Million by Using Ho Ching’s and DPM Heng’s Name

Meet 36-year-old Sathish Nair.

While he has nothing but a healthy dose of courage (and stupidity) and honeyed words, he managed to cheat over S$1.18 million from more than 10 victims.

How? By using the name of DPM Heng Swee Keat and Ho Ching, and Temasek Holdings.

Lest you didn’t know, Ho Ching is PM Lee’s wife and the CEO of Temasek Holdings. She’s probably also one of the most active Facebook users in Singapore.

Doing It For Three Years

According to TODAYonline, Sathish has been cheating for almost three years, from 2014 to Aug 2017.

In 2014, Sathish pretended to be an employee of Temasek Holdings and approached his 56-year-old neighbour for the opportunity of a lifetime.

He claimed that he was given some “lots” for Temasek Holdings for a new currency exchange investment programme.

If his neighbour was to invest an amount into it, it’ll double within a month, Sathish promised.

The neighbour trusted Sathish, especially after he received a few messages and calls from someone purportedly called Ho Ching, and handed over S$42,500.

In return, Sathish gave him a handwritten note promising $85,000 in return.

When the due date to return the monies arrived, Sathish managed to convince the neighbour to “reinvest” his money, and this carried on until mid-2016.

By then, the neighbour had invested $207,100.

As for why this ruse carried on for so long, Sathish also made it a point to gift the neighbour with a Rolex watch and a Samsung mobile phone as “tokens of appreciation” from Temasek Holdings.

It was also mentioned that during this period, Sathish produced various letters, and one even including a forged signature of Ho Ching.

Caught

Sathish’s ruse, which went on for years, was caught after the neighbour got suspicious.

Sathish had promised the neighbour that Ho Ching will help him with “anything” in appreciation of his investment.

In response, the neighbour asked for help regarding a loan to a friend, his wife’s and daughter’s education.

When the promised help didn’t materialise, that was when the victim got suspicious and lodged a police report.

Sathish was caught by the police on 3 Nov 2017.

Not The Only Victim

His neighbour wasn’t the only victim.

Sathish has various other scams running at the same time and has produced letters from various places.

These include:

• Government ministries and bodies
• Banks
• Law firm

Signatures that he forged include:

• Mr Ravi Menon (MD of MAS)
• DPM Heng Swee Keat (Minister For Finance)
• Ho Ching

It was confirmed that the letters and cheques issued to the victims were not authentic.

In total, he had cheated S$1.18 million from at least 10 victims.

Charges

It doesn’t need to be said that Sathish is not in a good position right now.

He is facing a total of 61 charges, but the prosecution of the case will proceed with only 20 of them.

They include:

• Cheating (8 counts)
• Forgery (9 counts)
• Valuable security (2 counts)
• Theft in dwelling (1 count)

He will be sentenced on 16 Nov 2020 and is currently out on bail. His father had posted a S$50,000 bail for him.

For the charge of theft in dwelling, Sathish had reportedly stolen four cheques from his father and forged his signature, issuing three S$150,000 cheques to three victims who wanted their money back.

Needless to say, the cheques bounced.

If It’s Too Good To Be True

Here’s a good rule of the thumb to follow when being approached with opportunities.

1. If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably too good to be true.
2. If it sounds good and possible, verify. Verify. And verify.

Previously, a woman had taken advantage of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s name to scam a mildly-intellectually-disabled man of S$130,000.

She convinced him to give her his entire CPF savings, then made him give part of his salary to her for years.

Her crime only came to light after 15 years.

You can read the horrifying scam here.

In the meantime, you can also watch these videos we’ve done in collaboration with the Singapore Police Force to learn more about various scams (and also subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative and entertaining videos, please!):