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Malay Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Singapore man jailed for cheating wife's lover in fake condo investment scheme
SINGAPORE, July 24 — A Singaporean man who conspired with his wife to cheat her then-boyfriend of S$220,000 (RM770,000) through a fake property investment scheme has been sentenced to two years and four months in jail. According to The Straits Times, Eric Ong Chee Wei, 50, was also ordered to pay S$210,000 in compensation to the victim, David Tan, after having made an initial restitution of S$10,000. Should Ong fail to pay the full amount, he will have to serve an additional 105 days in prison. Ong's wife and accomplice, Felicia Tay Bee Ling, 49, who had carried out the scheme on his instructions, was sentenced to two years and one month in jail. Both were offered bail of S$40,000 and are expected to begin serving their sentences on August 18. The daily reported that Ong was unaware at the time that his wife was having an affair with Tan, although Tan knew Tay was married. The case unfolded in court with both Ong and Tay pleading guilty to a charge of cheating in June. Defence lawyer Nevinjit Singh told The Straits Times the couple remain married. Deputy Public Prosecutor Kiera Yu said Tay, a housewife, began an affair with Tan in 2014 after meeting him in 2010. Around September 2015, Ong, who had worked as a property agent until 2006, came up with a plan to trick Tan into paying 'security deposits' for purported condominium purchases, according to the report. Tay told Tan there were discounted investment opportunities involving seven units at Residences @ Emerald Hill, claiming the units could later be sold at a profit due to the 'poor property market'. However, six of the units did not exist and the seventh was not available for sale. Tay even provided handwritten records and screenshots of option-to-purchase (OTP) forms but no official documents were ever issued. The OTP forms were misused without the knowledge of a real salesperson from OrangeTee, a legitimate property agency. Between September and November 2015, Tan handed over S$220,000 across seven occasions, believing the transactions were genuine and that he would receive over S$1.7 million in profits, the daily reported. By early 2016, Tan became suspicious after receiving no returns. The relationship between Tan and Tay ended in March 2017. He eventually contacted OrangeTee in December 2019 and was informed that the transactions were fake. A police report was lodged the next day, and Ong and Tay were arrested in June 2022.
CNA
4 days ago
- CNA
25 months' jail for woman who worked with her husband to cheat her lover of S$220,000
SINGAPORE: Acting on her husband's instructions, a woman cheated her lover of S$220,000 (US$172,400) in a property investment scam. However, the husband did not know that his wife was having an affair with the victim, and the victim did not know that he was being cheated until years later. On Thursday (Jul 24), a district court sentenced 48-year-old Singaporean Felicia Tay Bee Ling to 25 months' jail. Eric Ong Chee Wei, 50, was given 28 months' jail and ordered to pay compensation of S$210,000. He had earlier made restitution of S$10,000 to the victim, Mr David Tan, 48. If Ong cannot pay the compensation, he will have to serve another 105 days' jail in default. THE CASE The court heard that Ong and Tay have been married since 1999. For seven years from then, Ong worked as a property agent. Thereafter, he did odd jobs while Tay was a housewife. Tay met Mr Tan sometime in 2010, and they began having an extramarital affair in 2014. The affair lasted until 2017. Ong knew of Mr Tan as his wife's friend. However, he had never met him at the time and did not know about the affair. Mr Tan, however, knew that Tay was married to Ong. In around September 2015, the married couple conspired to deceive Mr Tan. They agreed for Tay to tell Mr Tan about opportunities to invest in condominium units for significant profits. They intended to get Mr Tan to pay security deposits for condo units, purportedly at Residences @ Emerald Hill, when they knew there were no such units for purchase. From September 2015 to November 2015, Tay acted on her husband's instructions and told Mr Tan about the investment opportunities. Tay said that developers were willing to offload unsold properties at a discounted rate to agents, due to the poor property market. She claimed that her husband was offered the units as he used to work in property, and said she could help Mr Tan buy seven condo units directly from the condominium developer at a discounted rate. She said the units could be sold at a higher price and promised high returns within a period of three months from the date of each investment. Six of the units did not exist at all, and there were no such investment opportunities. Ong then gave his wife hard copies of option-to-purchase forms he had obtained from another property agent from real estate company OrangeTee. This agent was unaware of the misuse of the forms. Tay then filled out forms for the seven units and sent screenshots of them to her lover over WhatsApp, so he would believe that the money he had handed to her was part of security deposits to buy the units. VICTIM HAD IMMENSE TRUST FOR WOMAN The prosecutor said Mr Tan believed Tay's ruse as he had "immense trust" in her because they were in a relationship, and because he thought Ong worked in the property industry. Mr Tan gave a total of S$220,000 in cash to Tay over seven occasions from September 2015 to November 2015. In return, Tay promised him a profit of S$1.7 million when the units were sold. In around January 2016, Mr Tan became suspicious, as he had not been given any investment returns. He confronted Tay but did not get any concrete answer. To appease him, Tay prepared an "IOU document with information from her husband and with his signature. This was done to convince Mr Tan that Ong would pay him the money owed. In the document, Mr Tan used his brother's name – Kelvin Tan – instead of his own, as he did not want to risk exposing his affair with Tay to Ong. The IOU document stated that Ong would pay Kelvin Tan S$1.9 million upon the sale of the seven units – comprising the S$220,000 from Mr Tan's "investment" and the profit of S$1.7 million. The couple never paid Mr Koh any of the promised sum. Eventually, Mr Tan realised that he was not getting his money back. His relationship with Tay ended in March 2017. It was only more than two years later, in December 2019, that Mr Tan asked OrangeTee about the property agent stated in the forms provided to him, and learnt that none of the transactions he had made were legitimate. Mr Tan lodged a police report on Dec 12, 2019, and Ong and Tay were arrested in June 2022. Ong made restitution of S$10,000 to Mr Tan in October 2024. The prosecution said the amount involved in this case was significant, with minimal restitution to date. The offence was also premeditated, with elaborate steps taken to conceal it. However, the prosecutor said Tay's culpability was slightly lower than her husband's, as she acted on his instructions throughout the scheme. The prosecutor sought a compensation order of S$210,000, with a jail term of six months in default if Ong could not pay the money.
Forbes
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Duran Duran's Album Debuts On Multiple Charts — A Quarter-Century After It Dropped
Duran Duran's Greatest compilation debuts at No. 5 on the U.K.'s Official Vinyl Albums chart and No. ... More 9 on the Official Albums Sales chart after a special vinyl reissue. (MANDATORY CREDIT David Tan/) Duran Duran on a street corner in NYC, NYC, September 1981. (Photo by David Tan/) Duran Duran first hit it big in the early 1980s, when the English new wave act scored some of the biggest smash singles in the world across more than a decade. Unlike so many groups from that era, the Grammy winners have continued to regularly put out new music, while also revisiting past smashes. The band is back on the charts in its home country with a compilation originally released more than a quarter-century ago, which manages to debut – not return – inside the highest tier on multiple rankings. Duran Duran's Greatest Appears on Multiple Charts Duran Duran's simply-titled compilation Greatest appears on a trio of tallies this frame. The set was recently issued on vinyl for the very first time, and the project arrived with a special embossed cover and was pressed on double white vinyl, which was apparently of great interest to superfans of the pop group. Greatest debuts on two of the three charts on which it can be found in the United Kingdom this week. The set opens at No. 5 on the Official Vinyl Albums ranking and No. 9 on the Official Albums Sales chart. At the same time, the compilation reenters the Official Physical Albums list at No. 9. Greatest has already spent 68 weeks on that tally, and has previously peaked at No. 4. Duran Duran's Fourth Career Top 10 on the Sales Chart Duran Duran earns its fourth career top 10 on the Official Albums Sales chart. The group has collected just one more win inside that competitive region on the Official Vinyl Albums ranking. Duran Duran's Recent Successful Albums It has been less than two years since Duran Duran earned a new top 10 on both of the charts where Greatest debuts this frame. Back in November 2023, Danse Macabre launched and immediately reached the uppermost tier. Since then, the band has sent several other collections to both the Official Albums Sales and Official Vinyl Albums lists, but none have quite managed to crack the top 10.
Malay Mail
25-06-2025
- Malay Mail
Married Singapore couple admit to scamming wife's lover of S$220,000 in fake condo investment scheme
SINGAPORE, June 25 — A married couple who duped the wife's boyfriend out of S$220,000 (RM730,000) through a bogus property investment scheme pleaded guilty to cheating charges in court today. Felicia Tay Bee Ling, 49, and Eric Ong Chee Wei, 50, misled the victim, David Tan, into believing he was investing in condominium units with high returns, while hiding the fact that most of the properties did not exist, according to a report published in The Straits Times today. The court heard that Ong was unaware of his wife's affair with Tan, whom she had been seeing from 2014 to 2017, and whom she referred to only as a 'friend'. Deputy Public Prosecutor Kiera Yu said the plan was conceived in September 2015, with Tay approaching Tan about exclusive opportunities to purchase discounted units at Residences @ Emerald Hill, allegedly available through her husband who used to work in the property sector. Tay claimed the units could be resold for large profits within three months and warned Tan to keep the investment confidential as it involved 'exclusive offers'. Acting on Ong's instructions, Tay showed Tan fake option-to-purchase (OTP) forms using the name of an unsuspecting salesperson from real estate firm OrangeTee, and collected payments over seven occasions between September and November 2015. Tan handed over a total of S$220,000 as security deposits, believing he would make more than S$1.7 million in returns, but became suspicious by January 2016 when he received no returns and got vague responses from Tay. To placate him, the couple prepared an IOU document in Ong's name in early 2016, falsely promising to repay the money, before Tan ended the relationship with Tay in 2017. Tan only discovered the scam in December 2019 after verifying with OrangeTee that the OTP documents were fake, and he lodged a police report the next day. Ong and Tay were arrested in June 2022 and are expected to be sentenced in July. Ong has since returned S$10,000 to the victim.
