Malaysian man jailed for link in $39.9 million SkillsFuture scam

A former security guard was the next person to be convicted for his links to a S$39.9 million SkillsFuture (SSG) scam.

Malaysian national Nathan Muniandy, 50, was convicted of helping launder S$3.15 million from the SkillsFuture Court Grant Scheme.

He pleaded guilty to six charges of laundering $900,000 of the $3.15 million.

He was sentenced to three years and three months in jail.

The SSG scheme subsidized companies in Singapore to send its workers on skills training courses with registered training centres. The subsidy covered over a portion of the training fees and could either be made out to the business where the worker was employed or to the training centres.

Nathan reportedly met and befriended the syndicate member Vincent Peter in 2014.

In 2017, Vincent offered to pay Nathan who was then suffering financially in return for encashing cash cheques.

The pair visited several banks in Singapore such as Maybank and OCBC. Nathan encashed the cheques that Vincent gave him. Vincent also ordered him to lie to the bank employees about the cheques.

According to a report by the Straits Times, Nathan was unaware about the companies or funding source of the cheques.

He also did not question Vincent’s excuse not to do the encashing himself saying he had several outstanding bank loans.

Other individuals involved in the SkillsFuture scam include Manickam Pragasam, a cleaner who was sentenced to two years and nine months jail, and Chinese national Tang Cheng who was sentenced to six weeks of jail and a S$15,000 fine.

Thirteen other syndicate members faced charges in relation to forgery, cheating, perversion of justice, and money laundering. /TISG

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