3 Chinese nationals part of global cybercrime syndicate jailed for over 2 years each

Three men linked to a global organised criminal syndicate were each sentenced to more than two years' jail on Nov. 5.

The three Chinese nationals, Yan Peijian, 39, Huang Qin Zheng, 37 and Liu Yuqi, 33 were first arrested in an island-wide raid on Sep. 9, 2024.

Cyber crimes

Investigations showed that the men were directly involved in or played a supporting role in hacking into overseas gambling websites and companies for the purposes of cheating during gameplay, as well as stealing databases of personally identifiable information for trade.

More specifically, the three men probed "sites of interest" for weaknesses, according to a Singapore Police Force (SPF) press release.

The three men were tasked by the syndicate's leader to conduct penetration attacks on vulnerable sites, and exfiltrate information from the compromised systems.

All three accused possessed sophisticated hacking tools and malware.

The press release described the scale of their operations as "extensive", and in total, the men had hundreds of different Remote Access Trojans and multiple virtual machines for conducting cyber-attacks.

S$22 million worth of cash and cryptocurrency seized

In relation to the case, the police seized cash, bank accounts, vehicles, cryptocurrencies and bottles of liquor amounting to an estimated value of over S$22 million.

The prosecution has also ordered prohibition of disposal orders for four properties worth over S$30 million.

The Straits Times (ST) reported that a confidential email between officers from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development was found in Liu's laptop.

Meanwhile, Yan's laptop was found with sensitive messages discussing vulnerable domains, which included five Australian, Argentinian and Vietnamese government sites.

The three men pleaded guilty to four charges, including being members of a locally-linked organised criminal group, and acquiring property which were benefits from criminal conduct.

Yan and Huang were both sentenced to 28 months and one week’s jail, while Liu was sentenced to 28 months and four weeks’ jail.

Leader still at large

The trio were originally part of a group of six linked to a global syndicate which conducts malicious cyber activities.

Court proceedings for the remaining two accused are ongoing, with the syndicate leader currently at large overseas.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigation and Intelligence), concurrent Director of the Criminal Investigations Department, Zhang Weihan, said that “Those who think they can exploit the anonymity of the Internet to commit crimes in Singapore should think twice." 

"The Police will not tolerate the use of Singapore as a base for cybercriminal activities. We will spare no efforts to take cybercriminals to task and deal with them to the fullest extent of the law."

Top photo from Singapore Police Force