Man who tried to extort $500,000 from Standard Chartered Bank charged in court

Nagarajan Balajee, 35, allegedly threatened to publish a defamatory libel concerning Mr Aalishaan Zaidi, 47, the global head of digital banking at Standard Chartered Bank, unless he paid him $500,000.

In an earlier Stomp article about his arrest, the police received a report on Sep 27 at around 7pm from Standard Chartered bank, saying that it received anonymous emails demanding $500,000 in exchange for non-leakage of confidential information belonging to the bank.

Mr Zaidi was one of the few who received the threatening e-mail from Balajee, and was the one who lodged a report on the bank's behalf, reported The Straits Times.

Balajee allegedly used multiple fake e-mail accounts to send the threats to the bank anonymously.

Preliminary investigations by the police also found that he might have used overseas registered mobile lines and virtual private network (VPN) services to mask his identity, to evade detection.

VPNs allow unauthorised content from overseas to be accessed by users.

On Sep 30, Balajee was arrested along Kovan Road.

Several laptops and mobile phones were also seized from him in connection to the case.

Balajee was charged in court on Tuesday (Oct 2) for attempting to commit extortion.

If found guilty, he faces a jail term of between two and five years and caning.

He is currently out on $20,000 bail and will be back in court on Oct 30.

Read the full story at The Straits Times.