Ponzi scam: Jail for man who posed as ‘successful’ forex trader to run S$5 million scheme

Kenneth Kam Boon Hee offered victims loans, promising them a monthly interest rate of 3 per cent.

SINGAPORE: A man who pretended to be a forex trader was sentenced to 10 years’ jail on Monday (Dec 16) for between S$5 million Ponzi scheme that ensnared more than a dozen investors, the police said.

Kenneth Kam Boon Hee, 57, had previously been found guilty of 63 counts of cheating on Aug 26.

Kam, the director of firms such as Kenn Capital, Kenn Organisation International and Kenneth Kam Pte Ltd, deceived victims into believing he was a “successful” forex trader and unduly influenced victims to take out loans to him, the court found.

He claimed to have made good money from his trading and led victims to believe that he could pay a promised monthly interest rate of 3 per cent in exchange for the loans.

“Based on this, Kam asked the victims to lend him money for forex trading so that Kam could generate profit,” police said.

“In reality, Kam was running a Ponzi scheme, and was paying the 3 percent monthly interest payments to lenders with money borrowed from other members of the public.”

According to the police, the businessman raised S$5 million or so in loans from investors.

Kam was initially charged with 149 counts of cheating of about S$9 million in 2020, before additional charges were brought against him in 2021.

“In total, he was charged with 340 counts of cheating involving amounts exceeding S$16 million and four counts of transferring benefit from his criminal conduct,” police said.

Kam faced trial on 63 counts of cheating over 13 victims who had loaned money to Kam, while the other charges were stood down, police said.