SINGAPORE – By using different methods, a woman targeted 27 victims to commit a slew of offences, such as cheating, involving nearly $1.66 million in total.
Grace Yee, now 49, was sentenced on Wednesday (June 1) to seven years and five months’ jail after she pleaded guilty to seven charges for offences that include cheating and criminal breach of trust. Four of these charges involved more than $1.4 million.
Fourteen other charges, including those linked to the remaining amount, were taken into consideration during sentencing.
She committed all of her offences over five years.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew said between March 2015 and March 2016, Yee collaborated with a married couple to incorporate and operate a company called Greenwich Capital.
The court heard that it dealt with fund management, including investment in foreign exchange, on behalf of clients.
She was then entrusted with more than $1.77 million as investment capital for forex trading on behalf of the firm and four people.
She later misappropriated nearly $1.2 million of the amount. A woman who was a former investor of Greenwich Capital lodged a police report in November 2016 after not getting investment returns nor her initial capital from the company.
Officers of the Commercial Affairs Department arrested Yee on Dec 13 that year and she was released on bail later that day.
Instead of lying low, she got to know a man identified as Mr Edmund Yeo in August 2018 and committed more offences.
She offered to trade in forex and commodities on Mr Yeo’s behalf.
Mr Yeo later told his relatives and friends about the offer, and four relatives and one of his friends then passed him money to entrust to Yee to trade on their behalf.
Between August and November 2018, she was entrusted with more than $160,000.
She later misappropriated nearly $150,000 from it.
In addition, Yee was an undischarged bankrupt when she obtained a loan of more than $67,000 from Mr Yeo but did not tell him about her financial situation.
The court heard that he would not have given her the loan if he was aware of it.
