A woman from Singapore was recruited by a Malaysia-based Nigerian love scammer, Awolola Oladayo Opeyemi, and has been sentenced to 15 months imprisonment for her role in the scam after law has caught up with them.
32-year-old Suhaili Suparjo fell in love with Opeyemi and had a daughter with him.
Persuaded by him and ‘blinded by love’, she acted as his money mule and laundered more than S$356,000 in criminal proceeds for him.
She was sentenced on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, in Singapore, after pleading guilty to two counts of helping to retain benefits from criminal conduct, under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
Another four charges were taken into consideration.
The court heard that Suhaili was recruited by co-accused Awolola Oladayo Opeyemi.
Awolola was a member of a Nigerian criminal group carrying out scams worldwide while based in Malaysia.
Awolola targeted Suhaili as part of a love scam, cultivating a romantic relationship with her.
Awolola then got Suhaili to act as his money mule. She would receive cash in person and through her bank accounts.
When Suhaili’s POSB bank account was frozen following police investigations into love scams, she allowed Awolola to use her OCBC bank account to receive funds.
Between June and August of 2017, the account was used to receive a total of S$255,935 from four victims in Singapore, Canada and Macau.
Every now and then, Suhaili would withdraw money from her account before travelling to Malaysia to pass the cash to Awolola, who never stepped foot in Singapore.
Awolola and another scammer were arrested in Malaysia in 2019 and later handed over to Singapore, in what was the first time that love scam suspects based overseas were arrested and brought to Singapore for prosecution.
Awolola was sentenced to 60 months’ jail in December 2021.
The prosecutor called for 15 months’ jail for Suhaili.
