Indian national jailed in Singapore for bank fraud
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Nov, 2022 01:22 PM
ingapore, Nov 17 (IANS) An Indian national has been jailed in Singapore for nine weeks after he committed fraud involving more than S$26,000 that was traced to three fraud victims in the US.
Bhambri Kunal, 26, who first came to Singapore in 2018 to study, pleaded guilty to three counts of dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct.
In exchange for at least $100, Kunal, who was jailed on Wednesday, withdrew cash totalling more than $26,000 from Singapore bank accounts.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Seah Ee Wei said that between February 2021 and March the same year, Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department received information on fraudulent transfers involving three fraud victims in the US, The Straits Times reported.
Kay Kovaleski, the first victim, was duped into wiring $29,500 to a bank account in Singapore belonging to a man called Rahul Kumar, following which she filed a report with the FBI on February 10, 2021.
After 13 days, second victim, the Kimberly Lynn Mole, told police in California that she was deceived into wiring $32,620 to a Singapore bank account belonging to one Brar Vishavjeet.
Thomas Sabatino, the third victim filed a report with the Singapore Police Force on March 19, 2021, stating that he had been duped into wiring $46,000 to a bank account in Singapore linked to one Lakhwinder Singh.
Court documents did not disclose how they discovered that they were victims of a ruse.
Defence lawyer S.S. Dhillon said in early 2021, Bhambri's friends Rahul and Simar asked him to help them withdraw money from local bank accounts by using ATM cards, and Bhambri agreed to help them.
Between February 9 and March 3, 2021, he made withdrawals of more than $26,000 from bank accounts that did not belong to him, and passed on the cash to his friends.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor told the court: "(Bhambri)... did not check the names on the accounts before withdrawing the money. He admitted to knowing that it was wrong and illegal to withdraw money from other people's bank accounts but continued to do so," The Straits Times reported.
Dhillon said his client regretted his actions and was not the mastermind behind the offences.
On Tuesday, the Police had written to the Department of Forensic Medicine at Goa Medical College for appointing a panel of doctors for conducting the post-mortem. The autopsy is expected to be conducted later in the day.
Accused Rahul Kumar was arrested by cyber crime police station team (east) of the Gurugram police on Monday. Rahul Kumar was on the run since June 2021 when he along with his accomplice had duped a Gurugram resident of Rs 51,218 on the pretext of renewing his vehicle policy.
The foundation stone of the cancer hospital, the first of its kind cancer care in north India, was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 30, 2013. At that time Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister of Punjab in a coalition of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government.
The leader, who complained of uneasiness on Monday night, was taken to hospital at around 8 a.m. this morning, where she was declared brought dead. Sonali Phogat had contested the 2019 Haryana Assembly election from Adampur and lost to Congress candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi.
During investigation, it was found that Swapna is a school dropout but managed to get a degree certificate from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. Based on the fake certificate and influence of high ranking officials like Sivasankar, she secured a plush job in the IT department which was headed by Vijayan.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the borders of the state for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border. The Director General had called on the Chief Minister here on July 31.
