AUGUST 28, 2017
She travelled to Malaysia about 10 times in four months with cash in tow, in the hope of freeing a “close friend” she believed to have been detained there on money laundering suspicions. Grace (not her real name) spent $1.1 million on “certificates”, supposedly issued by the United Nations to prove the innocence of her friend – a 52-year-old Canadian businessman called Lee. But the amount she spent was not enough to prevent him from being “deported”.
The businesswoman, 45, realised she would not get her money back when the online banking website that Lee referred her to as proof of his finances could no longer be accessed after the scam was completed – it was a fake webpage.