No foreign claims for $944m in cash and assets forfeited in largest money laundering case

No foreign governments or agencies have made claims for the forfeited cash and assets from the 10 people convicted in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, said the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Sun Xueling said there have not been any competing claims for the assets and cash worth $944 million.

She was responding to questions from Workers’ Party chairman Sylvia Lim in Parliament on July 2.

The assets forfeited by the 10 foreigners in the case include luxury cars, property, watches, handbags, jewellery, alcohol and Bearbrick ornaments.

Ms Sun said foreign jurisdictions that feel they have a claim on the assets can make a formal request for mutual legal assistance.

She said this assistance can include Singapore sharing information regarding the movement of the assets, and returning them on a case-by-case basis.

Ms Sun said the forfeited assets and cash will go into the Consolidated Fund.

Revenues of Singapore are paid into this fund, similar to a bank account held by the Government, out of which government expenditures are made.

The 10 foreigners were sentenced to between 13 and 17 months’ jail on charges related to money laundering, fraud and forgery.

Seven were deported to Cambodia, while one was deported to Japan. The remaining two, Wang Dehai and Su Jianfeng, are still serving their sentences.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said all 10 will be barred from re-entering Singapore.

Ms Sun said that while those with multiple passports can indicate which country they would like to be deported to, Singapore will deport them to countries most likely to accept them.

On whether the nation’s anti-money laundering laws have had their intended deterrent effect, Ms Sun pointed to Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam’s written reply on May 8 to a question by Progress Singapore Party’s Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai.

Mr Shanmugam had said the penalties and sentences for cheating and forgery under the nation’s Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act were comparable to those of other jurisdictions like Japan, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany and France.

Dr Tan Wu Meng (Jurong GRC) asked if the inter-ministerial committee (IMC), set up to review Singapore’s financial system and strengthen its anti-money laundering regime, will consider how criminals could exploit Singapore’s regulations.

Ms Sun acknowledged that money launderers were employing more sophisticated methods to avoid getting caught.

She said: “They undertake multiple layering processes to hide their tracks and, obviously, with greater digitalisation, different categories of assets, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between legitimate and illicit fund flows.”

She added that the IMC’s full findings and recommendations will be presented in the fourth quarter of 2024.

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