Singapore Scamster Gets Slapped with 5 Months Jail Term

Source: ChannelNewsAsia Forum

March 24, 2008
Unlicensed fund manager jailed five months
By Khushwant Singh

TRAINING firm Zone Financial was set up to teach people how to trade in future contracts and indices. But it also acted as a fund manager between May 2004 and August 2006, collecting nearly $4 million from 32 people.

Its managing director, Kelvin Han How Yong, 28, was on Monday jailed five months after pleading guilty to allowing the firm to engage in fund management without a capital markets services licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Han would persuade participants at his training sessions to invest in a fund - called the Kelvin's Fund - for periods ranging from a few weeks to six months.

Between May 2004 and August 2006, he raised about $4 million from 32 investors as personal loans to him.

The money was used to trade in futures contracts and indices and he promised his clients returns of one to five per cent per month, depending on the amount they put in.

By the time he resigned as managing director in August 2006, he had lost about $718,000.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.