The total value of assets seized in Singapore’s largest money laundering case now stand at more than $2.8 billion, says Josephine Teo, Singapore’s second minister for home affairs. Teo revealed the figure in Parliament on Oct 3
These include 152 properties and 62 vehicles with a total estimated value of more than $1.24 billion; monies in bank accounts amounting to more than $1.45 billion; cash of more than $76 million; and cryptocurrencies of more than $38 million.
The amount is now almost triple the initial figure at $1 billion when the case first broke in mid-August. The police have also seized thousands of bottles of liquor and wine, 68 gold bars, 294 luxury bags, 164 luxury watches and 546 pieces of jewellery.
Teo said Singapore’s anti-money laundering enforcement agents first picked up signals of a case in 2021. In early 2022, the police launched an intelligence probe. Work was kept to a “very small group” of officers, and any enforcement or overt investigative actions were held off to avoid alerting the suspects.
The 10 suspects have been arrested and denied bail, with investigations ongoing.
According to Teo, the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office, a body under the Singapore Police Force received an average of 43,000 suspicious transaction reports annually from 2020 to 2022, or more than 150 every working day.
See also: Hong Kong a ‘global leader’ in financial crime, US lawmakers say
Four out of five of the reports were filed by financial institutions. Other entities obliged to file STRs range from pawnshops to money changers to housing agents as well as lawyers and accountants.
In the same period, around 240 people have been convicted of money laundering offences and $1.2 billion worth of assets seized, adds Teo.
In a separate address to the Parliament, second minister for finance and national development Indranee Rajah said she will be chair of a new inter-ministerial committee to review Singapore's anti-money laundering regime.
The committee, to be made up of office holders from the Monetary Authority of Singapore and four ministries: Home Affairs, Law, Manpower, and Trade and Industry, will ensure Singapore stays up to date with increasingly sophisticated crimes.
