Man jailed for pretending to supply gloves and face masks during COVID-19 pandemic, cheating 11 victims of S$3.79 million

Gerald Chan Tzen-Chou, who has been in remand since December 2020, told one of his victims that global demand for surgical face masks was very high and convinced her to invest with him in an Indonesian factory producing them. Neither the factory nor his investment was real.

SINGAPORE: A man was sentenced to jail on Friday (Aug 7) for cheating 11 victims of S$3.79 million (US$2.96 million) by pretending to sell surgical gloves, surgical face masks and hand sanitiser throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

As more cases of COVID-19 emerged in January 2020, Gerald Chan Tzen-Chou sensed an opportunity in the global pandemic and started offering various medical supplies for sale through a company incorporated by his then lover, the court heard.

He was sentenced to eight years and nine months’ jail on Friday, backdated to when he was remanded in December 2020.

Chan, 48, lied to his supposed clients that he was an authorised distributor of 3M surgical face masks and that he supplied these products to hospitals in Singapore.

To build their trust and confidence, he stocked his offices with boxes of medical supplies to give his victims the impression that he could fulfil their orders. In truth, the man’s “employees” had sourced these supplies on Carousell.

He would also fulfil small-quantity orders placed by his victims to show that he could fulfil subsequent larger orders, the court heard.

He also told one of his victims that global demand for surgical face masks was very high and convinced her to invest in an Indonesian factory producing them with him. But there was no such factory or investment.

Chan spent the payments on his personal expenses, the upkeep of his three offices and gifts for other people. He also lost S$418,933 gambling at the casino at Marina Bay Sands between December 2019 and April 2020, the court heard.

He was first arrested on Apr 2, 2020. After he was released on bail, he continued to cheat other victims and was arrested again on Dec 20, 2020.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Xavier Tan asked for at least eight years and nine months’ jail for Chan, stressing that Chan’s victims still suffered outstanding losses of more than S$3.2 million. He has made restitution worth S$585,500 to three of his victims.

The man also exploited the COVID-19 pandemic and took efforts to “clothe his scams with a guise of legitimacy”, the prosecution argued.

In delivering his sentence, District Judge Paul Quan noted that the dominant harm factor would be the losses caused to Chan’s victims.

Committing most of his offences while on bail was also an aggravating factor, he added.

The prosecution confirmed that it would not be seeking compensation orders for Chan’s victims after his lawyer, Mr Teo Choo Kee of CK Teo & Co, confirmed that he would not have the financial means to fulfil them.

“I just want you to serve your imprisonment term without incident,” said Judge Quan, noting that Chan has been in remand for more than five years.

WHAT HAPPENED

Chan’s biggest victim was cheated of S$850,000, court documents showed. She met him through a WeChat group in February 2020.

The man claimed to be a surgical face mask supplier and his victim was sourcing for such a supplier, as one of her existing customers was looking to buy them.

She ordered 118 boxes of surgical face masks from him, and he delivered them, not without some delays. But since he delivered the orders, her trust in him grew, the court heard.

The same month, he tricked her into believing that he had a supplier for hand sanitiser, and that he could secure a good price if she placed an order for 60,000 bottles.

He knew that this was a lie, but promised that he would refund her the deposit if she could not secure a buyer for the hand sanitiser. She transferred him S$30,000 as a deposit.

In March that year, the two met, and Chan cheated her into investing in an Indonesian factory producing surgical masks with him. He told her she would be able to recoup her S$80,000 investment with a return on investment of S$1,000 per day.

He proposed that the S$30,000 deposit for the hand sanitisers could fund part of the investment. The victim agreed and transferred him the remaining S$50,000.

Chan then tricked this victim and her sister into believing that there was an incoming shipment of 10 million 3M surgical face masks arriving in Singapore by the end of that month, the court heard.

He successfully lied to them that 7 million of the masks were ordered by a hospital in Singapore and the remaining 3 million were ordered by the company he ran.

Chan asked if they would like to place an order from the masks his company was supposedly about to receive, and his victim agreed after sourcing a potential buyer for the face masks.

He told her that the sale price was S$4.5 million for the entire shipment and requested a deposit.

She transferred him S$800,000 as a deposit to buy the whole purported shipment, and he deceptively promised to deliver the face masks by Mar 31, 2020.

The two signed a contract roughly detailing the terms of their agreement, which was prepared by the victim.

Chan knew that the incoming shipment of 10 million surgical face masks and the company’s order of 3 million surgical face masks and his promises were lies, and he had neither the intention nor ability to fulfil his victim’s order, the court heard.

The victim had to repay her customer for the deposit she paid to Chan, and the customer also made a police report against her in relation to this transaction.

Chan used similar methods to cheat his 10 other victims, resulting in at least 12 police reports against him between April 2020 and April 2021.

Other than not receiving the goods they ordered, some of his victims reported that they were told that they had to pay for Goods and Services Tax for their goods to be released, or that they were investing in a surgical face mask production line, court documents said.

For each charge of cheating, Chan could have faced a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.