M'sian man, 23, 1st money mule to be caned in S'pore for helping scam elderly victim

A 23-year-old Malaysian Yap Ching Gun was convicted on Apr. 29, 2026 for his involvement in an investment scam and sentenced to seven months’ jail and one stroke of the cane.

For his role of collecting cash from an elderly victim of an investment scam in Singapore, he was convicted of one count of being concerned in an arrangement to facilitate another person's control of benefits from criminal conduct.

Yap was recruited via Telegram by an unknown person to collect monies from a victim, who had been deceived into handing over cash as part of an investment scam.

The victim was led to believe that the funds would be deposited as investment capital into a fake investment brokerage company named "Maplerock".

Yap was responsible for the victim's losses amounting to S$8,198.

Yap's conviction marks the first instance of caning being imposed on accused persons convicted of money laundering offences related to scam activities under the amended Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992.

This follows the introduction of discretionary caning for scam money mules under the legislative amendments that took effect on Dec. 30, 2025.

Under this amended legislative, scammers and members or recruiters of scam syndicates will face mandatory caning of at least six strokes, up to a maximum of 24 strokes.

Scam mules who enable scammers by laundering scam proceeds will face discretionary caning of up to 12 strokes.

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