Guess the race: Man jailed for cheating childhood friend, local and viet woman

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

TODAY reports: 56-year-old Karuppiah Kaneshan cheated a childhood friend of more than S$26,000 by enticing him to invest in a “coffee shop business that promised good returns”.

• By Kelly Ng, TODAY
• Posted 03 Feb 2016 08:17
• Updated 03 Feb 2016 08:19

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SINGAPORE: Promising monthly profits of S$30,000 for investing in a coffee shop business, a freelance driver managed to cheat a childhood friend of more than S$26,000.

A district court on Tuesday (Feb 2) heard that Karuppiah Kaneshan, 56, had met up with childhood friend Mr Ramachandran T S Nayar in January 2013 to interest him in investing in a “coffee shop business that promised good returns”. Although Mr Ramachandran was not initially interested, Karuppiah persisted and approached his friend again two months later.

He tried to entice Mr 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 Mr Ramachandran gave Karuppiah S$26,500 over five occasions between March and July 2013 as “investments” into the scam business. Although Mr 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.

CHEATING OFFENCES STARTED MORE THAN A DECADE AGO

Investigations revealed that Karuppiah had committed similar cheating offences in 2004 and 2011.
Karuppiah got acquainted with his first victim Tan Hung Yeoh in October 2003. Seven months later, he offered to help Mr Tan set up a bank account with ABN AMRO Private Banking, also claiming that Mr 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. Mr Tan handed him S$20,000 in April 2004.

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 (S$14.3 million) to finance.

Passing himself off as a representative from the International Finance Corporation Australia (IFC), Karuppiah assured Thai 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 Jul 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. And when Karuppiah failed to do so, she lodged a police report. Karuppiah later admitted that he had used the money for personal expenses.

For cheating the three victims of a total of S$102,700, Karuppiah was sentenced to two years’ jail. Seven other charges were taken into consideration at the sentencing.

He could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined for each of the three counts of cheating.
Read the original TODAY report here.


-TODAY/mz


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