SINGAPORE, April 4 -- A man who climbed from a low-level loan shark runner to a syndicate "towkay" has been jailed for four years and two months and fined S$1 million (RM3.13 million) in Singapore, after raking in more than S$1 million from illegal lending operations spanning the republic and beyond.

According to Shin Min Daily News, Tan Keng Wee, 49, spent over a decade rising through the ranks of an unlicensed moneylending (UML) syndicate, eventually overseeing multiple "stalls" remotely from China while the group generated up to S$5.2 million in profits.

Tan began in 2003 earning S$1,000 a month as a runner, before moving up within a year to an "assistant loan shark" role handling administrative work such as recording debts and answe...