A man in Singapore orchestrated an AI investment scam, falsely claiming that monthly profits of 2% to 10% were possible, and defrauded 18 people of over 4.65 million SGD (approximately 15.25 million MYR). On the morning of the 19th, he was sentenced to 7 years and 9 months in prison.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the defendant, Wang Kaimin (42, transliteration), faced 23 charges of fraud and one charge of obstruction of justice. He earlier pleaded guilty to 8 of them, with the remaining charges considered during sentencing.
Court documents show that at the time of the offense, the defendant was a director of Singapore Index Trading Institute Pte Ltd (SITI). He would run classes to teach students how to make money by trading forex and indices.
Additionally, the defendant was also the owner of two other companies: C7 Traders Vanuatu Limited (C7TVL) and Bookhero Pte Ltd (Bookhero).
Between May 2019 and March 2021, the defendant promoted an investment scheme named "SITI AI" to investors. He claimed that SITI had developed several artificial intelligence (AI) software programs capable of trading on behalf of investors, and guaranteed monthly profits of 2% to 10%.
The defendant assured investors that SITI would guarantee them profits of 2% to 10% each month, and if SITI failed to deliver, he would bear the responsibility himself. From May 2019 to March 2021, he raised a total of around 8 million SGD from over a hundred investors. However, investigations revealed that most of these funds ended up in the defendant's personal accounts.
The charges indicate that approximately 18 victims lost a total of 3,967,890 SGD and 537,000 USD.
The prosecution pointed out that the defendant devised a complex scheme, held seminars to introduce potential investors to using AI for trading, and promised attractive returns. As a result, the victims participating in the plan were misled into believing that they were dealing with an independent investment agent, when in fact the agent was the defendant's own company.