The man, named Gerald Chan, saw an opportunity to make money when COVID-19 cases started rising in January 2020 and began selling medical supplies through a company set up by his partner.

He was given a jail sentence of eight years and nine months, starting from when he was first put in jail in December 2020.

Chan, who is 48 years old, lied to his clients that he was an authorized seller of 3M surgical face masks and that he supplied these masks to hospitals in Singapore.

To gain the trust of his clients, Chan kept boxes of medical supplies in his office, which were actually bought from an online marketplace, to make it seem like he had a lot of stock.

He also fulfilled small orders from his clients to make them believe he could deliver larger orders.

Chan told one of his clients that there was a high demand for surgical face masks worldwide and convinced her to invest in a factory in Indonesia that would make these masks, but this factory did not exist.

Chan used the money he got from his clients for his own expenses, to pay for his offices, and to buy gifts for others, and he also lost a lot of money gambling.

He was first arrested in April 2020 but continued to cheat people after he was released on bail, and he was arrested again in December 2020.

The prosecutor asked for a jail sentence of at least eight years and nine months for Chan, pointing out that his clients still had not gotten back more than S$3.2 million that they lost.

Chan's lawyer said that Chan would not be able to pay back the money he owed to his clients.

The judge said that the main reason for the sentence was the harm caused to Chan's clients and that Chan had committed most of his crimes while he was out on bail.

The judge also said that Chan's actions during the pandemic were particularly bad because he was taking advantage of people who were already suffering.

Chan's biggest victim lost S$850,000 to him after meeting him through a social media group in February 2020.

This victim was looking for a supplier of surgical face masks for one of her clients, and Chan said he could provide them.

Chan delivered 118 boxes of surgical face masks to this victim, but only after some delays, which made her trust him more.

The same month, Chan tricked this victim into believing he had a supplier for hand sanitiser and that he could get a good price if she ordered 60,000 bottles.

He promised to refund her deposit if she could not sell the hand sanitiser, and she gave him S$30,000.

In March, Chan cheated this victim into investing S$80,000 in a fake factory in Indonesia that would make surgical masks, promising her a daily return of S$1,000.

The victim agreed to use the S$30,000 deposit for the hand sanitiser as part of the investment and gave him another S$50,000.

Chan then lied to this victim and her sister about a shipment of 10 million 3M surgical face masks arriving in Singapore, saying 7 million were for a hospital and 3 million were for his company.

He asked if they wanted to buy some of the masks and said the sale price was S$4.5 million, and the victim agreed after finding a buyer.

She gave him S$800,000 as a deposit to buy the whole shipment, and he promised to deliver the masks by the end of March 2020.

The victim and Chan signed a contract outlining the terms of the agreement, which the victim had prepared.

Chan knew he was lying about the shipment and the order, and he had no intention of delivering the masks.

The victim had to pay back her client for the deposit she gave to Chan, and her client also made a police report against her.

Chan used the same methods to cheat his other 10 victims, resulting in at least 12 police reports against him between April 2020 and April 2021.

Some of his victims were told they had to pay extra taxes to get their goods, or that they were investing in a production line for surgical masks.

For each charge of cheating, Chan could have faced up to 10 years in jail and a fine.