Disclaimer: I am NOT a criminal lawyer. You are NOT my client. This is NOT a legal advice. I do not assume any responsibility if you choose to rely on the following information. You should engage a criminal lawyer if you are serious about the answer to your query.
I would frame the issue in the following manner: whether or not it is a offence for a person to procure or offer to procure a loan for a consideration which is more than the principal sum from the a non-specific person in public who presumably neither possesses a moneylender licence nor is an exempted moneylender?
The Short answer is: Yes, it is an offence under Moneylenders Acts s 14 which is punishable under s 14(1A) read together with s 109 of the penal code.
Summarised analysis:
1. it is presumed to be illegal for a person who is not your friend or your relative to lend you money with a interest (ss 1, 3 and 5 of the Moneylenders Act).
2. Although you may feel free argue that a person you get "acquainted" via the internet is your friend, a random person is not likely to be capable of rebutting the presumption made by the law based on my understanding of the case law.
3. Hence, the person who agrees to make a loan to you with an interest will have committed a crime (s 14 of the Moneylenders Act). You equally will have have committed the crime of conspiracy by abetment (s 109 of the Penal Code). The factual pattern (i.e. you invite a unknown person to make a loan to you and charge an interest) is supported in the case of Ho Sheng Yu Garreth v Public Prosecutor [2012] 2 SLR 375.
I am not saying that you SURELY WILL be so charged and so convicted. I am saying there is a good chance that you will.
