Singapore jails a Fujian man over first $2.2 billion money laundering conviction
On Tuesday, on the court hearing, Su Wenqiang, 32, pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 13 months in prison, backdated to his arrest in August.
Su faces 11 charges, including forgery and laundering the proceeds of crimes resembling buying multiple bottles of beneficial alcohol and paying A$48,000 ($35,860) a month to rent a luxury apartment near the town’s Orchard Road shopping strip. The prosecutor’s office brought two charges.
A robust message have to be sent that cash laundering is a serious crime and affects Singapore’s popularity as a financial center, the prosecutor’s office told Su through a translator. Su’s lawyers asked for leniency, arguing that the victims of the illegal acts weren’t in Singapore.
Su’s verdict will mark one other chapter in a scandal that has embroiled the world’s largest banks and raised questions on the financial center’s safeguards against illicit money flows. There will probably be further developments this week, and in line with a scheduled court hearing, no less than one other suspect in custody also plans to plead guilty.
An enormous money laundering case reveals the dark side of Singapore’s efforts to lure the super-rich
An enormous money laundering case reveals the dark side of Singapore’s efforts to lure the super-rich
The raids attracted huge local attention, with A$1 billion ($739.37 million) value of luxury properties, cars, gold bars, handbags and jewellery initially confiscated.
Police previously said the ten suspects were allegedly “laundering proceeds from overseas organized criminal activities, including fraud and online gambling.”
Additional reporting by Reuters
