Man charged with attempting to extort $500,000
A 35-year-old man was charged on Tuesday (2 October) with attempting to extort half a million dollars.
According to his charge sheet, Nagarajan Balajee is accused of threatening Standard Chartered Bank’s global head of digital banking and retail, Aalishaan Zaidi, that he would “publish a defamatory libel concerning him”, unless Zaidi gave him $500,000.
The alleged crime took place last Thursday (27 September) at about 10.30am at Standard Chartered@Changi 2, which is located at 9 Changi Business Park Crescent.
Nagarajan, an Indian national, stood expressionless in the dock as the charge was read to him. No plea was taken and the case will be mentioned again on 30 October. District Judge Christopher Goh set bail at $20,000.
In a statement on Monday, the police said they received a call from StanChart last Thursday informing that the bank had received anonymous emails demanding $500,000 in exchange for non-leakage of confidential information belonging to the bank.
The suspect was arrested by policemen along Kovan Road on Sunday.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the man is believed to have used multiple fictitious email accounts to deliver the emails. He is also believed to have used overseas registered mobile lines and ‘Virtual Private Network’ services to mask his identity to evade detection,” the police said.
Several laptops and mobile phones were seized from the man in relation to the case. If found guilty of attempted extortion, Nagarajan faces between two and five years in jail and caning.
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