A Singaporean man has been jailed for four and a half years for promising to arrange letters of credit (L/Cs) for a Taiwanese businessman.

The L/Cs failed to materialise in a scam that involved the convicted man, Roland Lim Teck Leng, travelling from Singapore to London and Kuala Lumpur to ensnare his victim.

Shell company

A court in Singapore heard that Teck Leng posed as a director of a Hong Kong-based company, Diagonal Investment, which unbeknownst to his victim was a shell company.

Teck Leng then advertised on the Internet in March 2004 a claim that he could issue multi-million dollar L/Cs for a fee.

No L/Cs

A Taiwanese businessman, Gary Hsieh Min Nan, responded to the advertisement and in July 2004 he paid Teck Ling 62,067 Singapore dollars (S$62,067) to arrange L/Cs worth US$10 million with BNP Paribas.

When the L/Cs had not arrived by August 2004, the Tawainese businessman contacted the police in Singapore, whose investigations into the matter resulted in Teck Leng's arrest and subsequent prosecution.

Acquittal

Prosecutors said that Teck Leng had also failed to deliver L/Cs worth US$5 million that the Singaporean had said he would arrange for Min Nan from HSBC in London.

The Singapore court acquitted Teck Leng of this alleged fraud because it would have been committed outside the court's jurisdiction in London.

Appeal

Teck Leng, who has a string of previous convictions for offences ranging from traffic violations to fraud, has appealed against his sentence and conviction.

However, since he could not afford the S$250,000 bail, he is currently serving his sentence pending the appeal.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.