Indian national charged for operating unlicensed money transfer business in Singapore

Singapore, Apr 24 (PTI) An Indian national was charged in a Singapore court on Friday for operating an unlicensed cross-border money transfer business involving over SGD 38 million (USD 29 million) in total.
     Raju Krishnamoorthi, 45, was charged with two counts of operating such a business, The Straits Times newspaper reported.
     He was charged with engaging in unlicensed remittance activities as a self-employed foreigner without a valid work pass, and conspiring with a company director to abet a false declaration in a work pass application, the paper said.
     Raju’s alleged accomplice, a 33-year-old Indian national who was supposed to be charged on Friday, failed to appear in court.
     An arrest warrant has been issued against him. A review of the matter would be held in June, according to the report.
     Court documents stated that Raju allegedly operated as a self-employed foreigner without a valid work pass between March 2024 and April 2025. Despite this, he purportedly engaged in unlicensed remittance services activities in Singapore without such a pass.
     In an earlier joint statement, the police and the Ministry of Manpower said that a raid was conducted in Norris Road in the Little India precinct after receiving a tip-off.
     They found that Raju had purportedly carried out unlicensed cross-border money transfer services.
     During the raid, the officers seized more than SGD 314,000 in cash, 30 ATM cards, one hard disk, two mobile phones, and multiple remittance transaction record books.
     Raju’s case will be mentioned again in court in May.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)