A man charged with three counts of money laundering through internet banking was yesterday found guilty after a trial by the Suva Magistrates Court.

Accused, Manjeet Singh,  will be sentenced on April 6.

In his ruling, Magistrate Shageeth Somaratne said: “The victim has said, without his authority and knowledge someone using internet banking withdrew funds from his account and credited it to the account of the accused.

“The defence submitted that the accused could not have the opportunity to check the source of these funds since the bank statements were coming late to him.

“But, the accused was using online banking and had the opportunity to observe the source of the funds coming to his account.”

Charges

Between December 5, 2013 and December 16, 2013, in Suva, Singh engaged indirectly in transactions that involved money to the sum of $20,102.51 from a Bank South Pacific (BSP) account, belonging to complainant, Sat Narayan.

Also between December 19, 2013, and December 21, 2013, in Suva, Singh engaged indirectly in transactions that involved money to the sum $4400 from BSP account belonging to complainant, Deo Chand.

Singh had pleaded not guilty to all the three counts of money laundering.

At the hearing of his case, the court heard from prosecution witness, Arti Dharshana Reddy, who was a USP Labasa Campus student in 2013 that she had opened a bank account with BSP on December 3, 2013, for her studies in Suva.

Ms Reddy gave evidence in court and said that while she was inside the bank, she received a call from a Rajneel Chaudary (first accused who has already been sentenced) who had asked her for a favour.

The court heard that he had borrowed her ATM card so that his father could send money into her account to which he would withdraw. He also said that Singh would pick the card from the receptionist at USP Labasa.

The court heard that the pair had used Ms Reddy’s bank account to make tranfers from both the complainants’ accounts.

Singh was living with Mr Narayan (first complainant) and without his knowledge transferred the money from his account to his. Mr Narayan only found out about this when he went to pay his city rates at the Suva City Council – that there were no funds in his bank account.

The second complainant, Mr Chand had previously given his account number to Chaudary as he had given him a loan of $500. It was also established in court that messages were extracted by the investigating officer from Chaudary’s phone.

Magistrate Somaratne said: “In these messages Singh asked Rajneel to get the girls involved and also asked him to say that they did not have intention to take money and it was just for fun.

“Further he informed Rajneel not to state that this was a planned job and on January 12, 2014, Singh again instructed Rajneel to deny it was a planned job.

“He also told Rajneel that he has informed his dad about all the things and they were trying to save both of them.

“From these messages it is clear that Singh was aware of these funds coming without the permission of the owners to his and Ms Reddy’s account and he also tried to implicate Ms Reddy in to these transactions.”

Edited by Caroline Ratucadra

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