Three men to be charged in connection with S$3B money laundering case

SINGAPORE: Three men, aged between 26 and 41, are set to be charged in court on Thursday (15 August) for their alleged involvement in Singapore's landmark S$3 billion money laundering case.

Two of the accused are former bank relationship managers who had convicted criminals Su Baolin, Vang Shuiming, and Lin Baoying as clients.

These three are among the ten Fujian-origin foreigners convicted and jailed for laundering illicit funds and other offences.

The third individual, a Singaporean personal driver, is linked to fugitive Su Binghai, who is currently wanted by the police for alleged money laundering.

“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 police said on Wednesday.

The S$3 billion money laundering investigation began in 2021 following tip-offs about foreigners using forged documents to launder money in Singapore.

This led to the simultaneous arrests of nine men and one woman from China in August 2023, with all arrested individuals subsequently sentenced and deported by June 2024.

The last of the 10 offenders was sentenced in June. All of them have since served their jail terms and have been deported.

One of the bank employees, a 26-year-old Chinese national, was a relationship manager at a foreign bank in Singapore.

This individual, identified as Wang Qiming, who previously worked at Citibank before his termination in April 2022, had clients including Su Baolin and Vang Shuiming.

Investigations reveal that in December 2020, Wang allegedly assisted Su Baolin by creating a false loan agreement to deceive another bank regarding the source of a deposit made into Su Baolin’s account.

Wang was also allegedly found in possession of S$481,678 (US$366,500) in cash, collected on behalf of Su Baolin on December 15, 2020.

He has reportedly been unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the cash's origins, according to the police.

Between April 19, 2021, and April 25, 2021, Wang is accused of forging a loan document to deceive his bank about the source of Vang Shuiming’s funds, which facilitated the deposit of S$999,980 into Vang’s account on March 29, 2021.

Wang faces a total of ten charges.

The second bank employee, a 35-year-old Chinese national, served as a relationship manager at the local branch of a foreign-incorporated bank.

His clients included Lin Baoying. He allegedly received several altered versions of a forged tax document from Lin and submitted the final version to the bank as supporting documentation to facilitate the opening of a bank account in Switzerland.

He now faces one charge.

The third individual, a 41-year-old Singaporean, worked as the personal driver for Su Binghai, who is currently wanted by the police.

He faces two charges: one for allegedly lying to the police by claiming that Su Binghai did not leave any valuables in his possession, and another for obstructing justice by disposing of four vehicles that belonged to Su Binghai.

Director of the Commercial Affairs Department, 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.”