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 past Genneva sales representative to get convicted for cheating a store by erroneously reporting that she had lost her slave cards. The primary selling representative,  , Chen Qiaoling, was sentenced to 12 times ‘ jail in November 2021.
Genneva was a Singapore-registered gold investment company that sold golden plates under a buyback program between 2008 and 2012, promising results of up to 36 per cent over a contract time.
Eventually, the customers were told to deposit the metal bars with the business for “inspection purposes” and were promised an equal amount of gold after three working days, said the authorities.
According to judge records, Genneva implemented this golden examination system from August 2012. If consumers did not submit their golden plates for evaluation, they would not be able , to maintain their contracts with the company or buy the metal bars back in the future.
Between Aug 17, 2012 and Sep 30, 2012, Genneva collected almost 3, 580kg of silver.
But only about 2, 940kg was returned to clients after the alleged gold observation, leaving about 640kg of excellent 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.