For five years, two women cheated the Singapore Statutory Boards Employees’ Co-operative Thrift and Loan Society (SSBC) out of $5,111,828, committing “a massive public institutional fraud”. The former employees were convicted today (Aug 15) and sentenced to jail terms of up to 12 years.
Arni Ahmad, 42, was slapped with a 12-year jail sentence after she confessed to 20 charges, including cheating and criminal breach of trust; while Hanati Jani, 49, got a sentence of nine years and eight months after the District Judge found her guilty of 20 charges, including criminal misappropriation and acquiring the benefits of criminal conduct.
According to TODAY, Arni had initially faced 467 charges, and Hanati had faced 275 similar charges. The former was an assistant manager at SSBC for eight years, while the latter was an administrative executive for five years. They were in charge of processing loans, deposits and withdrawals for SSBC members, but ended up misappropriating funds by falsifying accounts and forging thousands of letters, forms and records.
Armed with the funds, the pair even went so far as to ask 60 friends and family members for help to receive SSBC payments in their bank accounts. Excuses that Arni used to convince her friends included hiding her savings from her husband and avoiding tax payments on extra income.
From 2008 to 2013, both women set up phantom accounts using the personal details of their friends and family members to enable the cheating. They also pocketed the cash stashed behind the counter.
Unfortunately, the stolen money has not been recovered. Apparently, the duo spent their massive millions on posh European holidays, gym memberships, five-star hotel staycations, home renovations and personal expenses, Channel NewsAsia reported.
