SINGAPORE: A former sales agent of gold trading company Genneva has been sentenced to nine months’ jail on Thursday (Mar 13) after she cheated a pawnshop to redeem gold that came about from a multi-million dollar investment scam.
Zhang Jinxia, 58, was convicted on Mar 6 after a trial, of one count of cheating and another under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking, and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits), said the police in a news release.
She is the second former Genneva sales agent to be convicted for cheating a pawnshop by falsely reporting that she had lost her pawn tickets. The first sales agent, Chen Qiaoling, was sentenced to 12 months’ jail in November 2021.
Genneva was a Singapore-registered gold investment company that sold gold bars under a buyback scheme between 2008 and 2012, promising returns of up to 36 per cent over a contract period.
Subsequently, the customers were told to deposit the gold bars with the company for “inspection purposes” and were promised an equivalent quantity of gold after three working days, said the police.
According to court documents, Genneva implemented this gold inspection scheme from August 2012. If customers did not submit their gold bars for inspection, they would not be able to renew their contracts with the firm or sell the gold bars back in the future.
Between Aug 17, 2012 and Sep 30, 2012, Genneva collected nearly 3,580kg of gold.
But only about 2,940kg was returned to customers after the purported gold inspection, leaving about 640kg of outstanding gold. A portion of that was sold, pawned or used to fulfil new sales.
Genneva then ran out of gold bars to return to its customers when the collection of gold bars for the inspection exercise slowed down in September 2012, according to the police in a previous news release.
