Malaysia-born con artist goes on ‘one-woman crime spree’ in US, stealing identities and fortunes
- Cheah Siew Im told victims she was Lee Kuan Yew’s granddaughter and a close friend of Obama, getting them to invest in sports teams and Nigerian oil
- Over two decades, Cheah took on personas of her roommates and nail technicians, then used those identities to conduct scams from Virginia to California
The Washington Redskins player and his agent met Cindy Lin in 2015 at a suburban Porsche showroom in the US.
She told them she was only in her 30s but was wealthy, well-connected and ready to buy a majority stake in the city’s NBA team. According to a letter the agent wrote to the court, they eventually invested in what they thought was a bid for the Washington Wizards.
After a time the two became suspicious. There were inconsistencies in her stories, the agent wrote. They wondered about her parade of sports cars and even her age. They asked for their money back; to date, they have not received it, the agent wrote.
Neither have most other victims of the woman, whose real name is Cheah Siew Im.
She does not use guns, knives, or any other sort of physical weapon … Language and emotion are her weapons.
One federal prosecutor described her in court as “a one-woman crime spree”. Another, in a sentencing motion, said she “has perfected the art of identity theft”.