SINGAPORE: A woman who was facing bankruptcy cheated her boss at a real estate firm into giving her a total of S$3.7 million (US$2.8 million), including his life savings and the sales proceeds of two of his properties.
The 69-year-old man later borrowed from his niece to keep handing money to the woman, and now stays in a rented home with his wife.
Lynn Charlotte James, a 47-year-old Singaporean, was convicted of five counts of cheating on Monday (Mar 4), with several other charges to be taken into consideration.
She pleaded guilty midway through her trial, which was delayed after she claimed she was suffering an asthmatic attack and could not breathe.
The court heard that James began working at the unidentified real estate firm around 2006, reporting to the victim.
In 2008, she began having financial difficulties and faced bankruptcy.
She devised a plan to cheat the victim, whose name was redacted from court documents.
James told the victim that she had become bankrupt and lied to him that the Insolvency and Public Trustee’s Office (IPTO) had retained funds in her bankruptcy estate.
She asked the victim to help her pay various purported fees to IPTO so that IPTO would release the funds to her.
The man believed James and gave her sums of money. As time passed, James demanded more and more cash from him, telling him that she would return him all the money he had given her once IPTO released the funds in her bankruptcy estate.
The victim was convinced that he had to keep transferring money to James, as she said she could not return the money he had already given her if IPTO did not release her funds, and he wanted to recover the substantial sums.
James also created fictitious emails from government agencies such as IPTO and the Ministry of Law to corroborate her lies.
In the forged emails, the government agencies purportedly demanded various fees payable to IPTO.
James also created fake emails from the Attorney-General’s Chambers and judges such as Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon asking her to continue paying fees to IPTO.
She told the victim that if he stopped paying money, the funds he had already sunk in would be confiscated and he would not be able to get his money back.
She warned him not to report the matter, saying that IPTO would confiscate her funds if they found out he was helping her and he would not be able to get any money back.
For more than nine years between May 2008 and October 2017, the victim transferred S$3,677,537.03 to James over 2,253 transactions.
He depleted his life savings to give money to James and also took money from his wife.
He and his wife sold two of their properties to raise funds to give to James, and they now stay in a rented home.
When the man and his wife ran out of money, he resorted to borrowing money from his niece. The niece eventually flagged the case to the authorities.
James used the money to repay her loans from moneylenders and to settle her personal expenses. She has not made any restitution.
She will return to court for mitigation and sentencing on Mar 12.
