Ex-religious teacher admits to misappropriating nearly $33,000 from pilgrims going on Umrah

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
July 7, 2023

A former religious teacher admitted on Friday that he had misappropriated nearly $61,000 from multiple victims.

Among them were people who handed him cash totalling nearly $33,000 for items including tour packages for Umrah – an Islamic religious pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Rasman Saridin misappropriated another $27,900 from five other people who paid for a three-year PhD programme in Islamic studies at an Indonesian university.

Separately, Rasman also received $79,500 in total by committing offences under the Travel Agents Act. He had unlawfully carried out the business of a travel agent even though he was not licensed to do so.

The 56-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty on Friday to five charges, including two counts of criminal breach of trust involving $28,850 and a charge under the Travel Agents Act linked to more than $6,000.

Another 18 charges, including those involving the remaining misappropriated amount of nearly $32,000, will be considered during sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Chua said that one of the victims was a 44-year-old man who wanted to pursue a PhD in Islamic studies in 2014.

He came across an advertisement about a collaboration between an Indonesian university and a company called Azzam Educational & Event Management Services.

At the time, Rasman was the director of the firm and helped the man enrol in the university. Details about the university were not disclosed in court documents.

Between 2016 and 2017, another of Rasman’s companies, Azzam Travel & Tour, faced financial difficulties.

He then misappropriated $7,000 of the man’s course fees and used it for his own tour business.

In September 2017, the university told the victim that a payment of about $7,000 for his programme was outstanding, and he had to pay the amount to complete the course.

Four other students received similar notifications and one of them made a police report in December 2017.

Rasman has since made a $300 restitution to the man.

DPP Chua told the court that in 2018, Rasman’s daughter registered a company called Khalifah SG (KSG) and he organised events under it.

From June 2019, he started advertising through various channels that KSG will be organising Umrah tour packages.

A 33-year-old woman and her family signed up for such a tour which was supposed to take place from Nov 28 to Dec 9, 2019.

She paid Rasman more than $6,000, but he kept the monies for personal use.

On Nov 28, 2019, the woman, her family and other members of the tour group met Rasman at Changi Airport.

He told them that the tour was unable to proceed due to a “visa issue” and became uncontactable soon after.

The woman made a police report the next day and investigations revealed that Rasman did not hold any licence from the Singapore Tourism Board, which was needed to carry out a travel agent’s business.

Another victim, a 55-year-old man, had also engaged Rasman’s services for an Umrah tour package for himself and 19 other pilgrims.

Between October and November 2019, he handed $21,850 to Rasman who misappropriated the monies.

Sometime on or around Nov 27 that year, Rasman created a false air ticket booking – with the victim’s name – showing two flights between Singapore and Saudi Arabia on Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Rasman then handed the booking to the man. The police were alerted the next day and Rasman has since made a $5,000 restitution to the victim.

In a separate matter, DPP Chua said that Rasman was declared a bankrupt on Nov 2, 2017, and was not allowed to leave Singapore without the Official Assignee’s permission.

Despite this, he left the country on three occasions in 2018.

The DPP told the court that Rasman has a history of drug abuse and was earlier sent to jail for offences including theft.

His mitigation and sentencing for his current offences will take place in September.