Woman jailed for offering investment scheme without licence
She was the director of two companies that promised investors returns of 8.5 per cent to 22 per cent after a year.
But Doris Tan Stephenson, 44, formerly known as Clara Tan Lisin, did not have the authorisation from the Monetary Authority of Singapore to offer such investments.
The 29 people who invested more than $1 million in total with her company here lost 70 per cent of it.
Yesterday, she was jailed for 12 weeks for offences under the Securities and Futures Act.
Tan was convicted on nine counts of offering the investment scheme without authorisation or recognition, another nine counts of offering the scheme without an approved prospectus and carrying out the business without a capital markets services licence.
Another 40 similar charges were taken into consideration.
Tan was the director of CTL Group, a Singapore company, and CTL Global Holdings, an American company.
In 2013, CTL Group marketed an investment scheme offered by CTL Global to investors here.
The scheme involved the American company buying properties there in bulk, earning returns through resale or the collection of rent.
The company collected $1.05 million from 29 investors under the scheme that year.
But when they did not get the returns, they filed 10 police reports here against CTL Group.
The Commercial Affairs Department began investigating in 2017 and found that only about $342,000 was paid out.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Khoo asked for 12 weeks' jail, revealing it was the first time someone was prosecuted here for offering a collective investment scheme without authorisation, recognition and an approved prospectus.
In mitigation, Tan's lawyer Jonathan Cho of Covenant Chambers said his client's crimes were that of omission and not fraud. "My client herself has sustained quite a significant loss, losing $3 million of her own," he said.
According to him, Tan was being treated for depression at the Institute of Mental Health, and was at one point relying completely on financial support from government bodies.
He also said she had been betrayed by those she trusted and one of the alleged parties was an American attorney handling finances for the American company.
For running the business without a capital markets services licence, Tan could have been jailed for up to three years, or fined up to $150,000, or both.
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