Exec tricks biomedical company CEO into giving him $500K to buy Pokemon cards

An executive at a Singapore-based biomedical equipment supplier has been jailed after tricking the company’s CEO into giving him $500,000, which he spent on Pokemon cards among other personal goodies.

There have been plenty of Pokemon card crime stories over the years, but this may be one of the smoothest criminals who got caught in the end.

According to the Strait Times, just a mere month into his role as an accounts executive, Linberg Yeo Yu Wei, 27, hatched a ploy to get his boss to transfer $501,173 in company funds to two of his bank accounts.

Yeo was in charge of processing payments to vendors, and his CEO would approve the transfer as long as he told him the finance manager and chief executive officer had signed off.

He then reportedly created fake payment requests in order to siphon money into his own accounts.

In November of 2023, a human resources manager discovered issues with a $24,840 transfer to Yeo’s bank account. After being questioned, he returned the money.

Following this, a police report was filed – and after an investigation, Yeo was arrested on January 5, 2024.

The Pokemon Company

Exec used stolen $500k to buy Pokemon cards, Rolex and gamble

In court, it was revealed that Yeo had used the money to fund a Pokemon card obsession, pay off credit card debt, purchase a Rolex, an iPad, go on vacations, and gamble.

“As (Yeo) wanted more money to spend, he created fictitious entries in the payment requests and deceived the CEO that these were legitimate payments to vendors,” Prosecutor Goh Qi Shuen said.

Yeo’s lawyer argued that his client wasn’t treated “fairly” at work and his frustration resulted in him committing the offense, further noting that he had returned all the money to the firm.

On January 22, he was sentenced to 19 months in jail after pleading guilty to one count of cheating.

Amazingly, this isn’t the only time big money has been involved in a Pokemon card-related crime. Back in 2022, a 62-year-old’s $500,000 Pokemon card collection was stolen from his 6800-square-foot waterfront home.