Two female former staff members of the Singapore Statutory Boards Employees’ Co-operative Thrift and Loan Society have been charged on Wednesday (21 December) with hundreds of charges of fraud and other offences involving $5.1 million.
Arni Ahmad, 41, former assistant manager, was charged with 467 counts. While, former administrative executive Hanati Jani, 49, was charged with 275 charges.
The co-operative is regulated by the Cooperative Societies Act under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Chin told the court this was a case of massive public institutional fraud.
DPP Kenneth said that Arni and Hanati fooled the co-operative into disbursing “a staggering” S$5,069,147.63 from 2008 to 2013 using fake applications, which lodged by phantom members. The pair also allegedly laundered the millions through a network of phantom members before eventually channelling the funds back to their pockets.
Both of them were suspended in 2014, when their offences came to light after the co-operative discovered more than S$5 million was missing from its accounts.
The pair face charges of cheating, conspiracy to cheat, forgery, criminal breach of trust as a servant, scheming to commit CBT, acquiring benefits of criminal conduct and using benefits of criminal conduct.
Arni, who was unrepresented, stated that she intends to get a Criminal Legal Aid Scheme lawyer. While, Hanati’s lawyer Amarjit Singh asked for six weeks’ adjournment to take instructions.
The women were each was offered bail of $1 million in one surety or $500,000 in two sureties. Their passports have also been impounded.
Their case will be mentioned again on 25 January 2017.
They face up to 10 years’ jail per charge and a fine if found guilty of cheating.
