Singapore, Jul 21 (PTI) An Indian-origin Malaysian man was on Tuesday sentenced to over three years in Singapore for collecting 1,600 gold bars worth more than SGD 412,000 (about USD 319,200) from a scam victim and smuggling them to Malaysia, a media report said.
In November last year, Turah Raju Subramaniam, 39, collected illicit items in Singapore through a Telegram group for “job opportunities”, according to a Channel News Asia report.
As part of it, he collected 1,600 24K gold bars worth SGD412,791 from a 54-year-old Singaporean woman who had fallen for a government impersonation scam.
After securing the valuables, Subramaniam was taken back to Malaysia in a designated car by his instructors. He handed the gold bars to the car’s driver.
Subramaniam was later arrested when he tried to re-enter Singapore a few days after that.
Subramaniam was sentenced to 38 months – or three years and two months after pleading guilty to a charge of assisting another person to retain benefits from criminal conduct, according to the report.
The prosecution sought 42 to 44 months’ jail for him, saying he had travelled into Singapore to collect the gold bars from a scam victim, “driven by self-interest and indifferent to the potential nefarious purposes” of his instructors.
In Singapore, assisting another person to retain benefits from criminal conduct carries a jail term of up to 10 years or a fine of up to SGD 500,000, or both, according to the report. PTI GS GRS GRS GRS
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