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Former banker who allegedly defrauded victims of over $1.9M faces 94 charges

The victims’ losses amounted to $1,969,000 in total.
Singaporean Han Delong, 33, allegedly committed the offences between February 2015 and April 2018. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — A former senior personal banker who allegedly defrauded his victims of over $1.9 million was on Tuesday (8 October) slapped with 94 charges for offences ranging from cheating to criminal breach of trust and forgery.

Singaporean Han Delong, 33, allegedly committed the offences between February 2015 and April 2018. He is accused of cheating his victims into parting with their money under the pretext that the sums would be used in fixed deposits for investments in financial products. The victims’ losses amounted to $1,969,000 in total.

Han faces 65 charges related to money laundering; six counts of criminal breach of trust as an agent; one count of forgery for the purpose of cheating; 11 counts of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property; one count of attempted cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property; eight counts of forgery; and two counts of attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

While court documents did not state which bank Han was employed by, court documents stated that the dishonestly misappropriated sums were meant to be placed as fixed deposits with United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC).

In response to queries from Yahoo News Singapore, a UOB spokesperson said Han was a personal banker at the bank from August 2014 to December 2015.

“UOB does not tolerate any employee’s breach of our Code of Conduct, which is values-based and sets the highest professional and ethical standards we expect our people to uphold. Any UOB employee who does not comply with the code faces disciplinary action,” the spokesperson added.

Yahoo News Singapore has also reached out to OCBC for comment.

According to a Singapore Police Force press release on Monday, Han allegedly used forged documents to con his victims. When he suspected that the police were investigating him, he allegedly attempted to obstruct their efforts by tampering with the evidence of two witnesses.

Han told the court on Tuesday that he intends to seek legal advice from a lawyer and was offered bail of $600,000.

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