Singaporean accused of acting as money mule

 Rahmad Ibrahim answered an ad in 2005 requiring him to act on e- mail instructions from his employer to collect money at remittance agencies in Germany, Australia, Britain and Spain and send it on by wire transfers to Latvia, the district court was told.

Rahmad stood to earn a commission of 3 per cent per transaction.

Now a property agent, Rahmad spent two days in a Singapore district court answering questions about his failure to disclose to authorities that his 4,900-Singapore-dollar (2,960-US-dollar) wire transfer on December 22, 2005 to Latvia was the proceeds from criminal activities, The Straits Times said.

Rahmad maintained that he was unaware of any criminal activities allegedly run by his employer, Financial Investment Advisory Services (FIAS).

District Judge Jill Tan asked for submissions to the court on July 17.

If convicted, Rahmad faces a fine up to 10,000 Singapore dollars (6,578 US dollars).

FIAS claims on its website to be a department jointly operated by the International Financial Corporation and the World Bank.

Investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department in Singapore and Australian police revealed that the organisation was run by a criminal syndicate.

Its members obtain bank account IDs and passwords of victims through internet "phishing," and then access accounts to steal money, the report said.

Phishing involves sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be a legitimate enterprise to convince the recipient to reveal personal financial information.

Money stolen by the syndicate is then moved through Singapore, or "laundered", to give it a measure of credibility.//Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA)