A 58-year-old Singaporean woman, Zin Nwe Nyunt, admitted in court to being unaware of the origins of over S$711 million transferred to her company’s three bank accounts between 2020 and 2021.
According to The Straits Times, she pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed payment service business in collaboration with Nyan Win — a 60-year-old Singapore permanent resident who is also her husband’s childhood friend.
In 2019, Nyan Win was approached by a Myanmar national known as Ko Phillip, who sought assistance in setting up a Singapore-based company to facilitate his commodities trading operations.
The plan involved incorporating a company and opening corporate bank accounts to receive and transfer funds as per Ko Phillip’s instructions, with commissions offered.
Due to previous issues with his own company’s bank accounts, Nyan Win enlisted Zin Nwe Nyunt’s help. She incorporated a wholesale trading firm named Unione and opened three corporate bank accounts, handing over control to Nyan Win.
In return, they agreed to split the commissions earned.
Between 2020 and 2021, Unione’s bank accounts received over US$531 million (S$711 million). According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Ryan Lim, Zin and Nyan Win did not conduct due diligence to verify the legitimacy of the funds.
They also failed to verify the nature of Ko Phillip’s purported commodities business.
Source: Sasun Bughdaryan on Unsplash
“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,” he said
The scheme unravelled in Aug 2021 when authorities were alerted to an Australian investment scam victim who had transferred US$1.8 million (S$2.4 million) to various Singaporean bank accounts. More than S$480,000 (S$6400,000) was subsequently funnelled by three of the companies into Unione’s account.
Zin Nwe Nyunt pleaded guilty to two counts of operating an unlicensed payment service and is scheduled for sentencing on 1 April.
Nyan Win, who received more than $110,000 in commissions, also pleaded guilty to similar charges and will be sentenced on 24 April.
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