S'pore woman received over S$711 million in bank account, admits not knowing where funds came from

A woman set up a company as part of a business arrangement and received more than US531 million (S$711 million) in its corporate bank accounts over two years.

Zin Nwe Nyunt, 58, a Singaporean citizen, worked with her husband's childhood friend, Nyan Win, who controlled Zin's accounts and made transfers to local and overseas accounts, in exchange for commissions totalling over S$280,000.

But Zin claimed she never knew where the received funds came from.

The offences came to light in August 2021 after one of Zin's company accounts came under investigation for its links to scam monies.

Started company to receive and transfer funds

The court heard that Zin is the sole director and shareholder of Unione Pte Ltd.

This came about after Nyan, 60, was approached by Myanmar national "Ko Phillip", whom he knew through his cousins, sometime in 2019.

Phillip apparently operated a commodities trading business and told Nyan he was looking for someone to incorporate a company in Singapore to assist in the operation for his business.

The role of this company was to create corporate bank accounts, which would be used to receive and transfer funds under Phillip’s instructions.

Phillip offered Nyan, then the director of a motor vehicle business, a commission of 0.5 Myanmar kyat (S$0.0003) per USDS$1 received under this arrangement.

Nyan was interested in the offer but he was uncertain if he could do it through his business, Piyar International, as they had already closed their corporate accounts.

So Nyan approached Zin's husband, his childhood friend, with the business offer instead.

As Zin's husband had a full-time job, he suggested that Zin assist in incorporating the company.

Zin did so, and subsequently opened bank accounts with OCBC, DBS, and UOB through the company, Unione Pte Ltd.

Zin agreed with Nyan that the bank accounts would be controlled by him, and they would split the commissions.

Zin also handed over the internet banking account and token of the corporate bank accounts to Nyan, so he could liaise with Phillip on the transactions.

As part of the agreement, Zin took home over S$170,000 in "commissions" over two years, while Nyan took over S$110,000.

S$711 million received in accounts over 2 years

The prosecutor said Nyan would liaise with Phillip to make arrangements for money to be received into Unione’s corporate bank accounts, and to receive instructions from Phillip on where to transfer the money afterwards.

Between Jan. 28, 2020 and Jul. 20, 2020, Nyan used Unione’s OCBC account in Singapore to receive more than USD 152 million (S$202 million) and made transfers to various bank accounts in Singapore and overseas.

Nyan made about 456 transactions and transferred over USD 153 million (S$202 million) out from the account, with over USD 21 million (S$27.9 million) of the sum remitted to overseas bank accounts.

Zin and Nyan would split the total commission between them, with Zin taking 60 per cent and Nyan taking 40 per cent.

Eventually, the OCBC account was closed by the bank in July 2020 due to the large number of suspicious transactions being performed on it.

After this happened, Zin opened a corporate account with DBS for Unione under Nyan's instructions so they could continue their agreement with Phillip.

Between Jul. 29, 2020 and Apr. 1, 2021, more than USD 251 million (S$334 million) was received in the DBS account, and more than US 260 million (S$346 million) was transferred out of it.

A UOB account set up by Zin was also used between Aug. 18, 2020 and Mar. 24, 2021 to receive more than USD 127 million (S$169 million) and transfer out more than USD 119 million (S$158 million) to various accounts in Singapore and overseas.

Did not know where funds came from

The court heard that Zin and Nyan did not know the sources of the funds received into all of Unione's bank accounts.

Neither tried to ascertain the nature of the funds they were receiving nor investigate Philip’s claims that he was operating a commodities business.

Zin, Nyan, and Unione also "did not have in force a valid licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)" and "were not an exempt payment service provider" during the entire period, the prosecutor said.

In August 2021, their offences came to light when police were notified that an Australian scam victim had transferred USD 1.8 million (S$2.39 million) to bank accounts of Singapore companies.

When these transactions were reviewed, it was found that three of these companies had transferred over S$480,000 to Unione’s UOB account.

Investigations subsequently revealed the links between Unione, Nyan and Zin.

On Mar. 5, Zin pleaded guilty to two counts of working with Nyan to carry out a business of providing a payment service in Singapore without a licence, The Straits Times reported.

Nyan had previously pleaded guilty to similar charges.

Zin will be sentenced at a later date.

Top image from Canva