SINGAPORE — When several people who invested in Alvin Goh Shu Min’s fake business ventures demanded to see their returns, Goh cooked up a plan to misappropriate S$260,000 from a remittance agent and use the cash to pay the investors back.
Goh had already spent the funds the investors had entrusted with him on personal expenses, including paying himself a salary.
The 41-year-old Singaporean was jailed for three years and one month on Friday (Feb 11) after pleading guilty to one count each of dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, and cheating.
Five other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that he had set up Beavers Unified Professional Services in March 2014, describing it as a brokerage firm involved in the buying and selling of small and medium enterprise businesses.
His role was to find clients who wished to sell their business, advertise their business, and link them up with prospective buyers.
HOW THE SCAMS WORKED
Around 2017, he began advertising a business venture on the online platform businessforsale.sg, relating to the opening of a franchised cafe outlet. He put out a call for suitable investors willing to invest a minimum of S$20,000.
Nine people, aged between 40 and 69, eventually expressed interest in the venture.
Goh and his two staff members then met them, explaining that they wanted to open a franchised outlet of the fArt tArtz cafe, which had several outlets across the…
