Who says collecting can lead a person to do crazy things? This news story, that's who.
Singaporean news outlet The Straits Times reported that 27-year-old account executive Linberg Yeo Yu Wei pled guilty to stealing some $500,000 from the company he worked for to go on a spending spree and buy, among other things, an iPad, a used Rolex, and … Pokémon cards.
(He is Asian, after all.)
The court heard that Yeo was employed by biomedical equipment supplier SPD Scientific in July 2023.
He was in charge of processing payments to vendors, through a process that required the approval of his finance manager and chief executive officer.
Yeo noticed that his CEO would approve the transfer of funds as long as he informed her that the finance manager had approved the payment vouchers and documents.
Once you stumble upon a nice scam, it's hard to stop. Especially when there are [checks notes] ... Pokémon cards to be had.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Goh Qi Shuen told the court: 'As (Yeo) wanted more money to spend, he created fictitious entries in the payment requests and deceived the CEO that these were legitimate payments to vendors.'
Between August and October 2023, Yeo cheated his CEO into approving the transfer of $501,173 in company funds to two of his bank accounts.
Yeo eventually raised the suspicion of the company's HR manager, leading to an investigation and his eventual arrest.
He was sentenced to 19 months in jail. After receiving his punishment, Yeo's only comment was, "Hawwwwwwwww."
The fate of the Pokémon cards remains unknown.
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