News
Ex-S'pore navy officer breaks into condo & steals S$2.2 million in crypto, buys 7 Rolex watches & pays off gambling debts
He also bought an Audi, and topped up his CPF.
October 05, 2025, 12:30 PM
A 34-year-old man, who was a captain with the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) Naval Diving Unit (NDU), broke into a man's condominium and made off with almost US$1.7 million (S$2.2 million) worth of cryptocurrency from the victim's account.
He used the stolen gains to buy luxury watches, settle his gambling expenses and make mortgage payments.
The 34-year-old, Teo Rong Xuan, pleaded guilty in court on Oct. 1 to one count each of housebreaking and misusing a computer system, as well as other charges related to the stolen money.
Joined NDU in 2010
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan told the court that Teo, who also goes by Rex, joined the NDU in 2010, The Straits Times (ST) wrote.
Teo later left the SAF in 2023.
According to charge sheets seen by Mothership, Teo's thievery began when he broke into a condo unit along Newton Road on Dec. 31, 2022.
He met the victim, a 30-year-old Chinese national, through a mutual friend, "Zee", in June 2022, according to ST.
The victim had an offline cryptocurrency wallet in the form of a hardware device, the court heard.
To secure the wallet, the victim registered it on an official mobile application, which generated a "seed phrase", a string of words used for access.
The victim generated the phrase and wrote it on a piece of paper, which he kept at home.
On Dec. 14, 2022, he deposited 1.7 million USDT (Tether coins) into the wallet.
Opportunistic
Four days later, he invited Teo and Zee to his home to watch a football match.
Teo arrived 30 minutes earlier than Zee, at around 10:30pm.
When Zee shared in their WhatsApp chat group that he had arrived, Teo asked the victim for his condo access card to go pick up Zee.
Teo did not return the card.
On Dec. 31, the three made plans to welcome the New Year together and agreed to meet at Marina Bay at 9pm.
When the victim left his home that day, Teo seized the opportunity to enter the unit using the access card, which he had kept from before.
In there, he entered the man's bedroom, found the paper with the seed phrase, snapped a photo of it and left, ST wrote.
He then went to meet up with his friends, including the victim, as planned.
A day later, Teo connected his own offline wallet hardware to his desktop and keyed in the victim's seed phrase, gaining access to the victim's cryptocurrency wallet.
He then transferred 1.7 million USDT to his own cryptocurrency wallet.
Spending spree
Following the theft, Teo used S$115,449.80 to pay off his HDB loan and S$53,095.43 to top up his CPF account, according to charge sheets.
He used S$885,227.98 to make a payment for losses incurred with Singapore Pools and S$683,978.02 for losses incurred on an illegal gambling website.
A total of S$322,008 was allocated to a company for "capital investment" and "team technical expense".
Additionally, he spent S$132,810 on seven Rolex watches, including a Rolex Submariner, a Rolex Datejust, and a Rolex GMT II,.
S$98,800 was also used to partially pay for an Audi A5 that had a purchase price of S$208,800.
Victim noticed something was off
On Mar. 23, 2023, the victim noticed that someone had withdrawn 1.7 million USDT from his wallet.
He went to the police and a blockchain security company for help with tracing the missing funds.
After the security company was able to trace some fees to Teo's cryptocurrency wallet, the victim confronted Teo.
It was then that Teo confessed to his theft, explaining to the victim that he had committed the offence because he had suffered huge losses following the collapse of FTX Trading, a cryptocurrency exchange and hedge fund, in 2022.
Discharged from the SAF
Teo was also charged with trespassing in a condo unit along Holland Road to annoy its owner and for cheating another individual by misrepresenting the amount he had in his cryptocurrency wallet via a false screenshot.
He is expected to face sentencing on Nov. 14.
Responding to queries from Mothership, a Mindef spokesperson said that Teo has been discharged from the SAF.
They also added that the SAF holds its service personnel to "high standards of discipline and integrity" and service personnel who offend will be "dealt with in accordance with the law".
Top image via Facebook, Rolex, Wristcheck
