Most of the clients were from China, with Liang often registering himself as director. He did this to fulfil the statutory requirement for a locally resident director.DPP Ong said Liang worked with agents who referred Chinese nationals to him. Sometime in August 2020, one of them referred a client, to set up a company in Singapore.
The bank later sent Liang a letter to open accounts for the company, which he signed and returned. Liang had taken similar steps to incorporate another firm Zheng Yan, and also opened a bank account for this firm at UOB that same month.One of the victims was German company Gasfin Development GmbH. Between Oct 25 and Nov 9 that same year, the company received e-mails purportedly from a supplier asking for payment.
DPP Ong said the police here managed to seize the stolen sum in Xin Yang Wu’s USD account before it was routed away. The KYC steps were introduced to combat the threat of money laundering and fraud. They require financial institutions and corporate service providers, among other entities, to verify the identity of customers and staff.
As a result, he had failed to exercise supervision over the companies’ affairs and check the companies’ transactions, review bank statements and enquire what the bank accounts were to be used for.