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Two men and a woman were sentenced to jail from 17 months to 45 months for conspiracy to defraud in District Court today (May 16).

The court heard that the two male defendants were the directors of two trading companies and the female defendant was the sole bank account signatory of an import and export company.

Between May and July in 2000, one of the defendants, a 38-year-old man successfully applied 13 Letters of Credit from a local bank with a total value of $28.8 million for the purchase of vehicle parts and stainless steal from the other two defendants, a 41-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.

Subsequently, the 41-year-old man and the 44-year-old woman negotiated the said Letters of Credit by presenting forged bill of lading to another bank and obtained proceeds of $28.3 million.

At maturity of the Letters of Credit, the 38-year-old defendant was unable to make settlement to the bank and the case was reported to the Commercial Crime Bureau.

Investigation revealed that the $28.3 million obtained by the 41-year-old and 44-year-old defendants were deposited back to the 38-year-old defendant's bank account.

Police arrested the three defendants on September 28, 2000 and later charged them with one count of conspiracy to defraud.

The three defendants were convicted in the District Court on April 30 this year. The 38-year-old defendant was sentenced to 45 months' imprisonment and the 41-year-old defendant to 17 months' imprisonment while the 44-year-old woman to 21 months' imprisonment today.

Police Report No. 4

Issued by PPRB

End/2100 hours, Friday, May 16, 2003(TK)

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