Three men, aged between 26 and 41, will be charged in court on 15 August 2024 for various offences including money laundering, forgery and obstruction of the course of justice. Their cases relate to a group of individuals who were convicted of laundering the proceeds of overseas organised crime activities in Singapore, and others who are suspected of the same but have not returned to Singapore to face investigations since the probe started.
The 26-year-old man, a Chinese national, was a relationship manager employed by a foreign bank incorporated in Singapore, whose clients included Su Baolin and Vang Shuiming – two of the 10 foreign nationals who were convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for laundering illicit funds and other offences.
Investigations found that sometime in or around December 2020, the 26-year-old man had allegedly abetted Su Baolin by making a false loan agreement to cheat another bank about the source of the deposit made into Su Baolin’s bank account. He was also allegedly in possession of S$481,678 of cash collected on behalf of Su Baolin on 15 December 2020, for which he has been unable to provide a satisfactory account of its provenance. Between 19 April 2021 and 25 April 2021, the 26-year-old man allegedly forged a loan document to cheat the bank in which he was working as to the source of Vang Shuiming’s funds, thereby allowing the deposit of S$999,980 into Vang Shuiming’s bank account on 29 March 2021.
The 26-year-old man will be charged with:
- One count of Section 468 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code for abetting Su Baolin to make a false loan agreement for the purpose of cheating a bank;
- Four counts of Section 468 of the Penal Code for forgery for the purpose of cheating the bank in which he was employed, including the forging of the false loan document to cheat the bank to permit the deposit of $999,980 into Vang Shuiming’s bank account;
- Two counts of Section 465 read with Section 471 of the Penal Code for dishonestly using as genuine documents, documents that he had reason to believe were forged;
- One count of Section 47AA of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (“CDSA”) for money laundering involving the sum of S$481,678;
- One count of Section 204A of the Penal Code for obstructing the course of justice by deleting his WhatsApp application on his mobile phone, which could contain his communication records with the bank’s clients; and
- One count of Section 182 of the Penal Code for providing false information to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority Officer that he had lost his passport, when it had been surrendered to the Singapore Police Force.
The 35-year-old man, a Chinese national, was a relationship manager employed by the local branch of a foreign-incorporated bank whose clients included Lin Baoying. The 35-year-old man had allegedly received various alterations of a forged tax document from Lin Baoying before submitting the final version to the bank as supporting document to facilitate the opening of a bank account in Switzerland. He will be charged with one count of Section 468 read with Section 471 and Section 109 of the Penal Code, for allegedly abetting Lin Baoying to submit a forged tax document to the bank.
The 41-year-old man, a Singapore Citizen, was the personal driver to Su Binghai, who is currently wanted by the Police for his involvement in alleged money laundering offences. The 41-year-old man will be charged with one count of an offence under Section 182 of the Penal Code for allegedly lying to the Police that Su Binghai did not leave any valuables in his possession, and another count of an offence under Section 204A of the Penal Code for obstructing the course of justice by disposing of four vehicles belonging to Su Binghai.
If convicted, the offence of giving false information to a public servant under Section 182 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 2 years, or with fine, or with both. The offence of obstructing the course of justice under Section 204A of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 7 years, or with fine, or with both. The offence of fraudulently using a forged document under Section 465 read with Section 471 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 4 years or with a fine, or both. The offence of forgery for the purpose of cheating under Section 468 of the Penal Code is punishable with imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years and a fine. The offence of money laundering under Section 47AA of the CDSA may be punished with imprisonment for a term of up to 3 years, or a fine of up to S$150,000, or with both.
Director of the Commercial Affairs Department, Mr. David Chew, said, “We take a very serious view of the laundering of criminal proceeds through our financial system. Banks as important gatekeepers of our financial system have compliance systems in place to detect and turn away criminal funds. We rely on the integrity of bankers in general and relationship managers in particular, as the interface between clients and the banks, to ensure this. Those who help clients circumvent their financial institutions’ due diligence processes or who help clients forge documents to conceal the true nature of their assets, must be dealt with robustly under our laws.”
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
14 August 2024 @ 10:15 PM