Singapore to strengthen asset recovery laws to enhance anti-money laundering regime

Singapore will reinforce laws governing its anti-money laundering regime, to allow for certain seized assets to be sold before court cases conclude, and for probes to extend to environmental crimes such as illegal wildlife trading.

Laws will be amended to empower law enforcement officers to apply to the courts to order the sale of seized assets that significantly depreciate or have high maintenance costs before the conviction of the cases, said a report detailing Singapore’s national asset recovery strategy.

Such assets may include luxury items – fine art, antiques, investment-grade wine and vessels, as well as animal livestock such as exotic fish, reptiles and racehorses.

On Wednesday (Jun 26), Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong announced Singapore’s national asset recovery strategy, as part of the country’s continued efforts to enhance its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime. 

He was speaking at the opening of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Plenary Meeting. Singapore has held the presidency of FATF, the global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, since July 2022 and its two-year term is set to end this month. 

Around US$2 trillion to US$3 trillion worth of illicit proceeds are channelled through the global financial system every year, and only a very small fraction of these criminal assets is intercepted and recovered. 

Wong said: “Criminals can largely get away with and profit handsomely from their crimes. To address this, FATF has revised its standards to improve international cooperation, for example, by requiring countries to recognise and enforce each other’s court orders on the confiscation of assets.”

The latest figures from Interpol show that recovery rates from illicit funds have improved from less than 1 per cent a decade ago to about 3 per cent this year, said Wong.

“Three per cent is still low. We need to do better. But at least we are moving in the right direction, and we can aim for even higher recovery rates in years to come.” 

He added that Singapore is fully committed to doing its part, and as an international financial and business hub, it recognises that it faces greater money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

“But we are determined to do what is needed to respond to these risks and safeguard our reputation as a trusted financial centre,” said Wong. 

The country will continually review and strengthen its legal frameworks to bring them in line with FATF’s standards, he said.

Details on Singapore’s national asset recovery strategy were published in a report on Wednesday, with asset recovery identified as one of the key priorities of the Republic’s anti-money laundering regime.

“We seek to deprive criminals of their illicit gains, thereby removing the financial incentive for laundering their monies in Singapore,” the report noted.

The national asset recovery strategy will comprise four prongs – detecting suspicious and criminal activities by tracing the illicit funds, depriving criminals of their ill-gotten proceeds through prompt seizure and confiscation, delivering maximum recovery of assets for forfeiture and restitution to victims, and deterring criminals from using Singapore to hide, move, or enjoy their illicit assets.

Between January 2019 and June 2024, Singapore seized S$6 billion linked to criminal and money laundering activities. Some S$416 million has been returned to the victims, and S$1 billion has been forfeited to the state, with the bulk of the remaining sums linked to ongoing investigations or court proceedings.

In Singapore’s largest money laundering case, assets seized or frozen by the police included 207 properties, 77 vehicles, 483 luxury bags, 169 luxury watches, 580 pieces of jewellery, thousands of bottles of liquor and wine, 68 gold items including gold bars, Bearbrick figurines and more than S$38 million of cryptocurrency. 

As at March 2024, the police incurred about S$646,282 in costs relating to the storage, maintenance and safeguarding of assets seized in the S$3 billion case.

A new Bill, the Anti-Money Laundering and Other Matters Bill, is also expected to be introduced this year, the report noted.

When passed, the Bill will enable law enforcement agencies to conduct anti-money laundering investigations in relation to foreign environmental crimes such as illegal wildlife trading, illegal logging and illegal mining which are carried out in South-east Asia. 

The new Bill will also strengthen the ability of sectoral regulators to access Suspicious Transaction Reports filed by their regulated entities to enhance anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing monitoring and detection.

“Recognising that court proceedings for sophisticated money laundering and predicate cases may be protracted, and the management of seized assets during these proceedings may incur significant costs for certain types of property, Singapore is planning to amend Section 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code and introduce a new Section in the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act,” the report said.

Source: Business Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.

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