A derivatives trader, Yugoslavian national Stefanovic Nenad conned his investors of $880,000 over two years. The Ponzi scheme he used was named after Charles Ponzi, one of the most notorious swindlers in America. According to Wikipedia, it is a description for any scam that “pays investors returns from the investments of later investors”.

Nenad told his victims that there would be a return of 30 per cent within a year, by investing with Fimat Singapore which is owned by French bank Societe Generale. With the money he cheated, he paid himself and his earlier investors. The money scammed was never deposited into Nenad’s Fimat Singapore account.

On November 2006, Singapore PR Skinner Hamilton gave Nenad a cheque for $50,000. Hamilton later gave him another cheque for $100,000 on 14 March 2007. Later during 2007, Nenad claimed that the $50,000 Hamilton had invested in his scheme paid a dividend of $15,000. The trader advised Hamilton to reinvest for more dividends, and he agreed. The British national also received $6,000 from Nenad as referral fee for introducing investors to Nenad.

On 13 March 2008, Singaporean Margaret Ng and her husband was relieved of £60,000 (worth $167,000 then). When Nenad did not return the money when Ng requested, she lodged a police report on 30 November 2008. The Fimat Singapore Account Nenad had ceased on 2 May 2007, investigations later shown.

Nenad is now facing 11 charges in court: eight charges of cheating, two of criminal breach of trust and one of forgery. District judge Liew Thiam Leng commented that Nenad ‘took great pains in covering his deception in the investment scam’. And Judge Liew added ‘The long period in which the offences were committed without detection is a relevant factor to be taken into consideration as it showed the attitude of the offender in repeating the offences time and again without any regard on the impact of the crime on the innocent victims.’

In mitigation, Nenad said that he was a first-time offender. He pleaded guilty to the four charges of cheating and was sentenced to 64 months’ in prison. He is appealing against the sentence.

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