Poh, the former principal of a tuition centre in Singapore, was charged and convicted of masterminding and abetting several students to cheat in their O-level examinations in 2016.

Poh, who was granted bail after sentencing, did not adhere to a court order to surrender in September 2022 to serve her jail term, and was suspected to have fled Singapore.

[6] Prior to this scheme, a Chinese national Dong Xin approached Zeus Education Centre, asking Poh to provide tuition for six students from China and help them to pass the O-levels and enter local polytechnics.

[9][10] Additionally, Tan and Fiona would register themselves as private candidates as well, and either of them sat for an exam paper with a phone concealed and attached to their chests.

Tan or Fiona would use the video-calling application FaceTime to capture images of the exam paper for the remaining accomplices to see and work out the answers.

[14] After the student came clean with the scheme, the police were contacted and subsequently, Poh and her associates were arrested and charged with multiple counts of cheating.

[18][19] In sentencing Tan, District Judge Kenneth Yap described the offences as one of undermining "the principle of meritocracy and Singapore’s reputation as an education hub."

He accepted the prosecution's arguments that a sentence of three years was warranted rather than the defence's proposed 18-month jail term since the cheating scheme was an affront to the efforts of thousands of students who shed their blood, sweat and tears to excel in the O-levels and opposed their rights to equality and fairness, and it also gave the wrong impression that the rich could use money to buy exam results without going through the necessitated process to complete the papers.

[22] Poh Yuan Nie, together with her niece and Feng Riwen, officially stood trial together at a district court on 17 April 2018 for 27 cheating charges against the each of them.

The prosecution was led by Deputy Public Prosecutors Vadivalagan Shanmuga and Cheng Yuxi, while the trial was presided over by District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt.

[24][25] 17-year-old Zhou Zice, the second of six students to testify in court, testified that via the same means, he was given the answers during the science practical exam on 19 October, in spite of his poor grasp of English and his uncertainty of correctly transcribing the answers he received, and he confirmed that he was told to wear a jacket and thick clothing to hide the Bluetooth devices he had.

[26][27] Zhou, who first came to Singapore in 2015 with the hope of attending an International Baccalaureate (IB) course, revealed that he submitted a decoy phone before the exam, and afterwards carried out the plan with the help of tutors from Zeus, where he was referred to for lessons under recommendation of his Singapore-based guardian.

She claimed that after her brother informed her that their mother was in custody, she went to the police station and was questioned by the investigating officer Stanley Chew, who allegedly banged the table and threatened Fiona to fess up, claiming that Fiona's mother was in the station for ten hours without food or water and even brought up the elderly woman's blood pressure.

[34][35][36] Denying that she did so to destroy evidence, Fiona told the court that she disposed of her phone because it contained photos of an illegal pet, which was a pangolin, that she reared in the tuition centre, which had since gone defunct during the course of the trial.

The prosecution therefore urged the trial court to draw an adverse inference from the trio's choice to remain silent and saw it fit to determine their guilt.

[46][47] In the aftermath, in February 2023, Fiona was granted an acquittal for her final preliminary charge of perverting the course of justice, and instead, she was let off with a stern warning from the Attorney-General's Chambers.

[48] Before the outcome of her appeal, Poh Yuan Nie was issued a court order to surrender herself in September 2022 to begin her four-year sentence.

[54][55] On 26 January 2023, Interpol officially issued a red notice for Poh's arrest, and the Singapore Police Force also publicly appealed for any crucial information to assist them in tracing her whereabouts.