A 46-year-old man will be charged on Saturday (Sept 13) after being arrested for his suspected involvement in a case of extortion.

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a press release that they had received a report from a woman on Sept 11 at around 3.55pm stating that a male friend had asked her to transfer cryptocurrency via a QR code, claiming that another friend of his required the money.

Despite transferring more than $78,000 to the former, she subsequently lodged a police report suspecting that he was in trouble.

Officers from the Woodlands Police Division conducted "extensive ground enquiries and follow-up investigations" to identify a 46-year-old man and arrest him within eight hours at Changi Airport Terminal 1, the release added.

The SPF in their preliminary investigations discovered that the man had allegedly restrained a male victim, presumably the woman's friend, with cable ties at a hotel at Coleman Street and extorted over $200,000 from him. 

The extorted cryptocurrency was recovered while the male victim was conveyed conscious to the hospital after sustaining injuries.

The accused is being charged for extortion under Section 384 of the Penal Code 1871, and if convicted, faces a sentence of between two to seven years in prison with caning.

"The police will not tolerate such brazen acts of crime and will spare no effort to apprehend such offenders and deal with them in accordance with the law," said the enforcement agency. 

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drimac@asiaone.com