By Teh Joo Lin and Mavis Toh

FACELESS financiers sit at the top of illegal money-lending syndicates. Save for one or two trusted lieutenants, no one in the syndicates knows their names.

These towkays could also be running legitimate businesses. They could be operating from abroad. And they never dirty their hands by getting involved in the money-lending operations themselves.

For those grubby activities, they have their Ah Longs, who each have their own "stall" with various levels of subordinates - much like a big corporation.

This way, when the runners - the ones who deface walls and speak to borrowers - are nabbed, they have little information to provide the authorities.

Not that these small fry would rat on their leaders, even if they knew who they were, out of fear for their own safety. Arrangements would have been made in any case for "fall guys" to take the rap.

Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee compared these syndicates to "organised criminal groups" driven by profits.

"Kingpins rarely expose themselves; they shield themselves from apprehension by recruiting and surrounding themselves with layers of lieutenants," he said. "Members are also fearful to testify against the Ah Longs and towkays for fear of reprisals for them and their families."

Loan shark activities have surged in the recent bad times. In the first nine months of this year, about 13,800 cases were linked to loansharking acts such as harassment, vandalism and even arson. This already exceeds the 11,800 cases last year.

To cripple the massive infrastructure loan sharks have built, the Home Affairs Ministry will be proposing changes to existing anti-loansharking laws in Parliament today. Present laws are proving inadequate to deal with the way loan sharks work today.

Up until the 1980s, the business was dominated by secret societies. Everyone in the syndicate - down to those on the lowest rungs whose job was to scare debtors into paying up - were fellow gangsters.

They operated within their locales, lending to those in territories they "controlled". Records were kept in "555" notebooks in their pockets and cash was given by hand to clients.

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This made it easier for the authorities to uncover more about a syndicate - and its leaders - once a member was arrested.

Today, syndicates are "loosely linked", making enforcement difficult, a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officer told The Straits Times.

Debtors and former loan sharks say some syndicates have even set up shop overseas. They have headquarters in Malaysia and open bank accounts to which profits are transferred.

Those in the know say that a typical syndicate starts off with a towkay shelling out money to several trusted men, usually bankrupts or convicts trying to get back on their feet.

"They're very loyal to the bosses and some will even take the blame if they are caught," said a former loan shark, 59.