Garald Lim pleaded guilty to three counts of handling some S$125,000 that were benefits from criminal conduct, The Straits Times reported.

Lim was accused of helping a global crime syndicate collect a total of S$427,151 from the two victims, who were scammed of a total of S$501,151.

The first victim, a 62-year-old woman, was duped of S$138,151 while the second was a 49-year-old woman who lost S$363,000. They were scammed sometime between March and April and had lodged police reports.

Lim travelled to Singapore on May 2 to collect money from the second victim, and was arrested the same day.

He pleaded guilty to three counts of handling the benefits of criminal conduct involving $125,000 in total.

Four other charges, including those linked to the remaining amount, were considered during sentencing. Lim has not made any restitution.

The Kuala Lumpur native had learned of a job opportunity with a group based in China called OpenPay through his friends. The job entailed travelling to Singapore to collect money from its “clients” late in the night.

The money was then converted into cryptocurrency, 99% of which was transferred to OpenPay’s crypto wallet. The 1% was kept by Lim as his commission.

“The accused stated that he believed OpenPay to be in the business of operating unregulated online casinos and gambling websites.

“The accused added that he believed the money he was assisting OpenPay to collect was likely to be from illegal means,” said deputy public prosecutor Gabriel Lee.

Lim’s lawyers, Josephus Tan and Cory Wong, had sought a lighter sentence of two years and two months’ imprisonment, saying their client cooperated with the authorities.