This Man Isburu Interpol, The Case May Sound Sepele, 'assisting' Students To Through University Entrance Examination

Photo by Yustinus Tjiuwanda on Unsplash

JAKARTA - What did readers have in mind when they found out someone was being hunted by Interpol? Maybe think the person is a big-name criminal like a killer, bank robber, or a billions of dollars fraudster. You are wrong.

Red Notice issued this week by the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, which facilitates police cooperation between 194 countries is not targeting perpetrators of extraordinary crimes.

Poh Yuan Nie (57) is strongly suspected of having fled Singapore after bailing out a complicated scam during the Southeast Asian country's annual GCE O Level test, which students took over the past year of their high school.

Poh was sentenced to four years in prison for committing fraud. He and three more people answered to students using bodycam systems, earphones, and bluetooth devices, as quoted by CNN, Saturday, February 4.

Private tutoring centers are big businesses in Singapore. When pressure for students to excel can be very heavy. So it's not strange that monthly fees at established private tutoring centers cost up to 2,000 Singapore dollars ($ 1,500).

According to initial court documents, Poh, 57, and three of his gang advistary men Poh Min, former girlfriend Tan Jia Yan and Chinese citizen Feng Riwen were paid 8,000 Singapore dollars (6,100) each by a man from China to help six students pass the GCE exam in 2016 in order to enter a local college.

Payments will be fully refunded if students do not pass the exam.

Under Poh's instructions, the six students wore leather earphones and attached cell phones and bluetooth devices to their bodies. So they can be given an answer by Tan who disguises himself as a private student who sits on the same exam paper.

With the help of a hidden camera phone attached to his chest, Tan was live streaming broadcasting these questions to Poh and two other tutors at the tutoring center. They then worked on the answer and gave it to the students.

After a year-long trial ending in 2020, Poh was found guilty of 27 counts of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.

Singapore police, who requested a notification from Interpol, said Poh would start his prison sentence in September, but fled. The gang is currently serving their respective prison sentences, police said.

"Poh was convicted of a series of cheating offenses, conspiring with students to cheat on the 2016 GCE O Level exam," the Singapore Police said in a statement.