7½ years’ jail for man who duped his father and other victims of over $3.8m to help friend

Published Sep 30, 2026, 06:11 PM

Updated Sep 30, 2026, 06:11 PM

Sebastian Lim Qian Ji was sentenced to 7½ years in jail after he cheated 21 victims, including his father, of over $3.8 million.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to a traffic offence and eight counts of cheating.

In August, the court heard that he has returned around $860,000 to some of his victims, bringing the total loss to about $2.9 million.

SINGAPORE – A man was sentenced to 7½ years’ jail on Sept 30 after he cheated 21 victims , including his own father and friends, of more than $3.8 million in total.

Sebastian Lim Qian Ji, 33, committed the offences in order to help a friend who was facing financial problems with a frozen food business.

He had earlier pleaded guilty in August to eight counts of cheating and an unrelated traffic offence .

Twenty-six other charges were considered during his sentencing.

The court heard in August that Lim had returned around $860,000 to some of his victims, bringing the total loss to about $2.9 million.

In earlier proceedings, deputy public prosecutors Jordy Kay and Chan Wayde told the court that Gerald Lee Hai Rui, 32, sought Lim’s help to obtain loans from Lim’s friends.

Lee was the sole director of a company called Geroy, which was facing financial woes in early 2021.

After agreeing to help Lee , Lim began cheating multiple victims between February 2021 and September 2022.

In early 2022, Lim lied to his 59-year-old father, claiming that he was involved in some “projects” that needed funding.

He claimed that the older man would receive “attractive rates of return” if the latter loaned money to Geroy, said the DPPs.

Unaware that the claim was false, Lim’s father told three of his friends of the “opportunity”.

“All three of his friends believed the false representations and gave the accused’s father a total of $430,000 on multiple occasions,” the DPPs said.

The father then handed the money to Lim.

Lim also cheated multiple other victims.

To avoid detection, he told the victims to either hand over cash or make bank transfers to various intermediaries, including his mother and his then girlfriend, who would then deliver the money to him .

Without disclosing details, the DPPs said that in an unrelated case, Lim was earlier convicted of drink driving and disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for two years from Dec 22, 2022, to Dec 21, 2024.

Despite this, he drove a car and got into an accident on Nov 17, 2024.

He was arrested 11 days later.

On Sept 30, Lim was also disqualified from holding or obtaining all classes of driving licences for a period of four years from his release date.

Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.

发布于 2026 年 9 月 30 日下午 6:11

更新于2026年9月30日下午6:11

Sebastian Lim Qian Ji 因诈骗包括其父亲在内的 21 名受害者，涉案金额超过 380 万美元，被判处 7 年半监禁。

他此前已承认犯有交通违章罪和八项欺诈罪。

8 月份，法庭获悉他已向部分受害者返还了约 86 万美元，使总损失达到约 290 万美元。

新加坡——一名男子因诈骗21名受害者（包括他自己的父亲和朋友）共计超过380万美元，于9月30日被判处7年半监禁。

33岁的林谦吉（Sebastian Lim Qian Ji）犯下这些罪行是为了帮助一位朋友解决冷冻食品生意上的财务问题。

他此前于 8 月份承认犯有八项欺诈罪和一项无关的交通违章罪。

量刑时还考虑了其​​他26项指控。

法庭在 8 月份获悉，林某已向部分受害者返还了约 86 万美元，使总损失达到约 290 万美元。

在之前的庭审中，副检察官乔迪·凯和陈伟德告诉法庭，32岁的杰拉德·李海瑞寻求林某的帮助，从林某的朋友那里获得贷款。

Lee 是 Geroy 公司的唯一董事，该公司在 2021 年初面临财务困境。

在同意帮助李之后，林在 2021 年 2 月至 2022 年 9 月期间开始欺骗多名受害者。

2022年初，林某向他59岁的父亲撒谎，声称自己参与了一些需要资金的“项目”。

检方称，他声称如果老人借钱给格罗伊，老人将获得“诱人的回报率”。

林的父亲并不知道这个说法是假的，还把这个“机会”告诉了他的三个朋友。

检方表示：“他的三个朋友都相信了这些虚假陈述，并多次向被告的父亲总共支付了 43 万美元。”

父亲随后将钱交给了林。

林某还欺骗了其他多名受害者。

为了避免被发现，他告诉受害者要么把现金交给各种中间人，要么通过银行转账给包括他母亲和他当时的女朋友在内的各种中间人，然后由她们把钱交给他。

检方未透露详情，但表示在另一起案件中，林某此前因酒后驾车被定罪，并被取消持有或获取所有类别驾驶执照的资格，期限为2022年12月22日至2024年12月21日两年。

尽管如此，他还是在 2024 年 11 月 17 日开车出了车祸。

11天后他被逮捕。

9月30日，林某也被取消了自其获释之日起四年内持有或取得所有类型驾驶执照的资格。

沙菲克·阿尔哈提卜是《海峡时报》的法庭记者，主要报道国家法院审理的刑事案件。