Nearly 7 years' jail for ex-SAF captain who accessed man's crypto wallet and stole 1.7m USDT

SINGAPORE — A former Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular was sentenced to six years and 10 months’ jail on May 8 after he broke into a man’s home, accessed the latter’s cryptocurrency wallet and stole 1.7 million USDT.

According to court documents, the amount of USDT Teo Rong Xuan, 35, had stolen in 2023 was worth the same amount in US dollars — US$1.7 million (S$2.15 million).

The former captain with the Naval Diving Unit, who left the SAF in 2023, pleaded guilty in October 2025 to one count each of housebreaking and misusing a computer system.

He also pleaded guilty to multiple counts of dealing with the ill-gotten gains.

In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Jonathan Tan told the court that Teo, also known as Rex, joined the diving unit in 2010.

In June 2022, he met the victim, a 30-year-old Chinese national, through a mutual friend identified as “Zee” in court documents.

The victim had a “cold wallet” — a cryptocurrency wallet that was not connected to the internet.

The DPP said the man’s cold wallet was a “Ledger Nano X” hardware device that physically resembled a thumb drive or security token.

After buying the cold wallet, the victim registered it on an official mobile application, which generated 24 English words, each with a serial number.

He then wrote the “seed phrase”— a collection of the words and serial numbers that can be used to access an individual’s cryptocurrency wallet — on a piece of paper which he kept at home.

He deposited around 1.7 million USDT into his cold wallet on Dec 14, 2022.

Four days later, he invited Teo and Zee to his condominium home to watch a football match.

Teo arrived at around 10.30pm and, about 30 minutes later, Zee sent a message to their WhatsApp group, stating that he was at a lift lobby near the victim’s unit.

Teo asked the victim for his condominium access card to fetch Zee, and the victim complied.

Teo did not return the card. 

On Dec 31 that year, the trio made plans to meet at the Marina Bay area at 9pm to welcome the new year.

Before they met, Teo, who found out that the victim had left his condominium, went to the property and used the card to enter the unit.

He entered the man’s bedroom, found the paper containing the seed phrase, snapped a picture of it and left.

He went to the Marina Bay area to meet the victim and Zee.

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Teo was at home on Jan 1, 2023 when he connected his own Ledger device to his desktop computer, keyed in the victim’s seed phrase and accessed the latter’s cold wallet.

He transferred the 1.7 million USDT to his own cryptocurrency wallet.

The DPP said Teo transferred around 100,000 USDT of his ill-gotten gains to an illegal gambling website.

Later, he used around 500,000 USDT for cryptocurrency transactions, mostly involving an illegal gambling website.

He also converted around 1.1 million USDT to US dollars, and transferred the money to his bank account. 

Teo used his ill-gotten gains to settle multiple payments.

On March 23, 2023, the victim realised that somebody had withdrawn the 1.7 million USDT earlier that year.

He alerted the police and engaged blockchain security company SlowMist to assist in tracing his missing USDT. 

SlowMist later told him that some fees were traced to Teo’s cryptocurrency wallet.

The victim confronted Teo, who came clean about what he had done.

Teo told the victim that he committed the offences as he had suffered “huge monetary losses” after a company called FTX Trading, that operated a cryptocurrency exchange and hedge fund, collapsed in 2022.

On May 8, defence lawyer Gino Hardial Singh asked if his client could start serving his sentence at a later date.

Among other things, he said Teo is in the midst of putting his 16-month-old child into pre-school.

Teo’s bail was set at $130,000, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on May 29.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.