Tan Hock Keat was alleged to have taken instructions from an unidentified man to open corporate bank accounts under six shell companies, The Straits Times reported.

The 34-year-old Tan was formerly a director of a Singapore-based company, DM Advisory, which provides corporate secretarial services.

Tan is accused of engaging bank officer Phua Wee Hao, 33, a Singaporean, to recruit nominee directors for the shell companies.

The companies are Plutusteam, Glidertex, Birseltex Global, Temco Industrial, Integrated Invest and Modelana Trading.

According to the daily, Tan and Phua were charged with entering into an arrangement to retain benefits from criminal conduct under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act (CDSA).

If convicted they could be jailed for up to 10 years or fined up to S$500,000, or both.

The Singaporean nominee directors Wong Zhang Jie, 32; Wong Poh Kiong, 47; and Low Ruey Ming, 32, were all charged with failing to act honestly and exercise diligence as company directors.

The republic’s police commercial affairs department said they received eight reports from victims who were allegedly deceived into wiring around US$1.67 million into the bank accounts of the shell companies between 2016 and 2019.

Police said there was also an attempted transfer of around HK$3.24 million (RM1.72 million) into the bank account of Jiangsu Chengde Steel Tube Share, a Chinese company that produced steel tubes.

However, the transfer did not go through as the bank account was closed.