The Commercial Affairs Department (“CAD”) will be charging three precious stones and precious metals dealers (“PSMDs”) in court on 18 March 2020 with offences under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, Chapter 65A (“CDSA”).
This is in relation to the SkillsFuture Singapore (“SSG”) case where nine business entities, comprising both training providers and employer companies, defrauded close to $40 million of training grants from SSG. Between 3 November 2017 and 26 February 2019, CAD charged 16 accused persons in court for the matter. Investigation revealed that two of the said accused persons had entered into cash transactions exceeding $20,000 with three PSMDs. The two accused persons converted a total sum of $654,578 which were derived from the fraud by purchasing jewellery and gold bars in cash from these three PSMDs.
Under Section 48J(1) of the CDSA, a PSMD who enters into a cash transaction exceeding $20,000 shall submit a cash transaction report (“CTR”) to a Suspicious Transaction Reporting Officer within 15 business days[1]. However, none of the three PSMDs in this case submitted any CTR, even though the respective cash transactions with each of them exceeded $20,000. The three PSMDs will be charged with failing to submit CTRs[2], an offence punishable with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or to both.
In addition, one of the three PSMDs also failed to do the requisite customer due diligence by enquiring whether the person was the owner of the cash before receiving it as payment[3]. That PSMD will face additional charges for failing to perform the requisite customer due diligence measure, which offence is punishable with a fine not exceeding $20,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or to both.
[1] During the second reading of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) (Amendment) Bill in July 2014, the then second Minister for Home Affairs, Mr S Iswaran said that the requirement to file CTR will expand to the PSMD sector, in view of the potential risk it poses as a conduit for money laundering and terrorism financing activities.
[2] and 3With effect from 10 April 2019, offences of this nature will instead be punishable under Section 17 and Section 16 of the Precious Stones and Precious Metals (Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing) Act 2019 (“PSPM Act”) respectively.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
17 March 2020 @ 4:00 PM