Singapore police yesterday charged a 29-year-old money changer with criminal breach of trust after foreign workers, including more than 1,000 from mainland China, complained that remittances had not reached their families.
Lam Chen Fong was one of two partners at Wen Long Money Changers, which specialised in sending foreign workers' cash back to the mainland and other countries around the region. It is understood that as much as S$7 million (HK$29.6 million) may have gone missing.
The whereabouts of his partner were unclear.
Police acted after crowds of mostly Chinese workers gathered outside the firm's shuttered office to the east of the city centre on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, anxious that money remitted to China last month had not been received.
'I sent S$2,785 on January 13, but learnt on Tuesday that my family had not received the money,' Li Cheng Lin was yesterday quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
If convicted Lam could face up to 10 years' jail and/or a fine.