The PayPal system glitch, exploited in a fraudulent scheme between late 2019 and 2020 in Singapore, operated through an automated payment and delivery loop hole involving tech vendors like Lenovo and Microsoft.
The mechanics of the exploit involved the following specific steps:
Account Setup: Participants linked their bank accounts to their PayPal accounts but purposely left a very low balance, typically around $100.
Funding and Remote Placement: The scheme's mastermind, Calvin Fong Jun Jie, would transfer the required purchase funds into the participant's account. He then used software to remotely control the participant's laptop to place orders for high-end tech devices.
The Exploited Glitch: When an order was completed, the payment was initially deducted from the bank account to pay the vendor. However, due to a technical glitch in PayPal’s system, the exact purchase amount was automatically credited or refunded back into the participant’s PayPal account shortly after the laptops were physically delivered.
The Outcome: The tech companies suffered a complete loss, as they delivered the physical laptops but ultimately received no financial payment. The perpetrators kept the free hardware and paid out a 40% "commission" to the participants involved in the operation.
The loophole was eventually brought to light after a participant, Jonathan Wee Jianwei, voluntarily confessed his involvement to the police out of guilt, as reported by Channel NewsAsia.
ACRA records show that Indian nationals are behind KPA Engineering and related firms linked through shared addresses, directors and shareholders. The findings emerge as about 400 migrant workers pursue claims over months of unpaid wages and authorities investigate the companies.
SINGAPORE: Business registry documents obtained by The Online Citizen reveal that KPA Engineering Pte Ltd, the air-conditioning services firm at the centre of a growing migrant worker wage dispute, is part of a network of at least three companies sharing a common registered office address, overlapping directors and shareholders, and residential addresses concentrated in the Hillview area of Singapore.
The documents — business profiles issued by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and dated 24 June 2026 — show that KPA Engineering Pte Ltd (UEN: 201426210N), SK Industries Pte Ltd (UEN: 202328151R), and KPA Services Pte Ltd (UEN: 201613558R) are all registered at the same unit: #08-10, Westech Building, 237 Pandan Loop, Singapore 128424.
All three companies are listed in ACRA records as live companies as of today's date.
It should be noted that a "live" designation in ACRA's system does not indicate that a company is actively trading or solvent — it simply reflects that no striking-off application, voluntary winding-up, or court-ordered liquidation has been filed with the registry.
A company's status remains "live" until its directors or creditors initiate a formal change.
The listing therefore confirms only that no winding-up process has been commenced, not that KPA Engineering or the related entities remain operational.
The Ownership Structure
KPA Engineering, incorporated in September 2014 with a paid-up capital of S$1 million, has two directors — both Indian nationals.
One, a Singapore permanent resident who has held the directorship since the company's founding, holds 70% of KPA Engineering's issued shares.
The second director, a foreign national whose NRIC prefix indicates an Employment Pass or equivalent long-term pass rather than permanent residency, was appointed in October 2020 and holds the remaining 30%.
The same Singapore permanent resident who holds 70% of KPA Engineering is also the sole director and 70% shareholder of SK Industries, a company incorporated as recently as July 2023.
The remaining 30% of SK Industries is held by another Indian national registered at the same Hillview Avenue address as KPA Engineering's second director.
KPA Services, incorporated in May 2016, lists a current director whose registered residential address matches that of KPA Engineering's founding director-shareholder.
KPA Services has a paid-up capital of just S$10,000 — a fraction of KPA Engineering's — and lists plumbing and air-conditioning installation as its primary business activity, the same sector in which KPA Engineering operates.
SK Industries, meanwhile, lists its primary business activity not as engineering or air-conditioning services, but as "wholesale trade of a variety of goods without a dominant product" — a broad catch-all classification — with plumbing and air-conditioning installation listed only as a secondary activity.
Banking Charges on Record
ACRA records for KPA Engineering reveal an additional detail of significance to the approximately 400 workers now pursuing unpaid wage claims.
The company carries two charges registered by DBS Bank Ltd in September 2024, both described as secured against "all monies."
Under Singapore insolvency law, secured creditors such as banks rank ahead of unsecured creditors — a category that includes workers owed unpaid wages — in any liquidation or winding-up proceeding.
This means that even if workers obtain salary awards through the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), their ability to recover those amounts from KPA Engineering's assets could be constrained by the bank's prior secured claim.
NTUC chief says KPA Engineering directors "may not be in the country"
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) previously confirmed it was investigating KPA Engineering and SK Industries after more than 100 migrant workers gathered at the ministry’s services centre in Bendemeer on 22 June seeking assistance.
Several workers told local media they had gone months without salaries and had been unable to contact company bosses over the unpaid wages. Some said they discovered the company office locked and unattended after promised payments failed to materialise.
On 24 June, National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) secretary-general Ng Chee Meng said the directors of KPA Engineering and related firm SK Industries “may not be in the country”.
Ng said the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) and tripartite partners had been attempting to contact the employers involved in the case.
Workers face barriers seeking unpaid wages
Labour and migrant worker advocacy groups said the case reflected longstanding difficulties faced by foreign workers trying to recover unpaid salaries.
Ethan Guo, executive director of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), said several workers from KPA Engineering had approached the organisation about a week earlier and were advised to file salary claims through TADM.
Guo said workers often delayed reporting disputes because employers persuaded them to wait while making occasional partial payments.
“The workers, having sunk in a lot of money in recruitment fees, are also reluctant to make a complaint for fear of losing their jobs,” he said, noting employers could cancel work permits and repatriate workers at any time.
Guo in a Instagram video said similar cases were not new, with some workers ultimately relying on humanitarian assistance instead of recovering owed salaries.
He said TWC2 had long proposed a mandatory salary insurance scheme requiring employers to purchase coverage upfront, allowing insurers to compensate workers if salaries went unpaid.
https://theonlinecitizen.com/2026/06/24/indian-nationals-behind-firms-at-centre-of-dispute-over-months-of-unpaid-wages-for-400-workers