SINGAPORE – A serial cheat duped 82 victims of more than $8 million in total through investment schemes, resulting in over $5 million in losses.
Tan Kai Min, 26, who was then a financial representative at an insurance firm, had employed four unwitting managers to act as his intermediaries.
On Nov 13, Tan was sentenced to 11 years and four months’ jail.
He had pleaded guilty to 19 counts of cheating, as well as one count each of giving false information to a public servant, forgery for the purpose of cheating, and dealing with the benefits of his criminal conduct.
Another 68 charges were considered during his sentencing.
Court documents stated that in 2020, Tan hatched a plan to attract investors, invest on their behalf, and profit from the commissions earned.
Among other things, he told the investors that the funds would be used to buy stocks on the New York Stock Exchange.
He promised them capital guarantee and returns of investment of more than 40% within a year, and signed contracts with them.
He also incorporated a company called Fenrir Management to provide assurance to investors and facilitate larger transactions.
Throughout 2021, the investors’ funds were used for investment-related purposes as promised.
When the one-year contracts ended, some clients withdrew their funds – fully or partially – while others re-invested for another year.
Some clients also increased their investment amounts and introduced family and friends to the scheme.
New contracts were then signed for continuing investors.
But by early 2023, Tan realised that the investments had performed poorly, resulting in capital losses and failure to generate the promised returns.
Despite this, he told his clients that their portfolios were performing well and asked that they continue investing.
He did so to delay withdrawal requests and try to recover losses.
In a bid to recoup the losses, Tan started using the investors’ funds to gamble but suffered significant losses instead.
As he became increasingly desperate to recover these losses, he gambled more frequently with larger amounts.
He also offered new investment schemes to attract additional funds from existing and new clients.
To delay payments to his victims, he filed a police report in December 2023, claiming that banks had frozen his accounts.
He then sent a copy of the police report with the fabricated claim to some of his victims.
In late 2023, he also forged a document, purportedly signed by a police officer.
It claimed that the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) had investigated his investment operations for “potential money laundering” and his bank accounts were seized pending an investigation.
It also claimed that investor withdrawals would be available later.
Tan circulated the document to his investors to explain his inability to make payments.
However, he later came under increasing pressure from the investors, who requested that he send an official letter from the police, threatening to make a police report if he failed to do so.
In January 2024, Tan created another forged document, purportedly from CAD, and his managers sent it to the investors.
Some of the victims verified the document’s authenticity with the police, and discovered that it was fake.
Separately, on 175 occasions in 2023, Tan used nearly $3.5 million of the investors’ money to gamble.
He was represented by lawyer Yip Jian Yang from Kalidass Law Corporation, who told the court that his client was in his early 20s during his offences.
“At such a young age, he found himself unable to grapple with the cascading losses and spiralling situation. His immaturity got the better of him,” the lawyer added.
He also said that Tan surrendered himself to the authorities in January 2024.
