4/2/24, 3:42 PM Singapore Sends Convicted Money Launderer to 13 Months in Jail

www.bloomberg.com /news/articles/2024-04-02/singapore-sees-first-guilty-plea-in-2-2-billion-laundering-case

Singapore Sends Convicted Money Launderer to 13 Months in

Jail
Low De Wei ⋮ 3-4 minutes ⋮ 4/2/2024

The first person to plead guilty in Singapore’s record S$3 billion ($2.2 billion) money laundering case was
sentenced to 13 months in jail.

Su Wenqiang’s sentence will be backdated to August last year, when he was arrested along with nine other
foreigners during an island-wide raid.

Su, 32, faced 11 charges including for forgery and laundering criminal proceeds. The prosecution on Tuesday
proceeded with two after he consented to the rest being taken into consideration for sentencing.

As part of a plea deal, Su also agreed to have all his seized assets worth nearly S$6 million forfeited to the
state. This includes a Mercedes-Benz car, more than 200 bottles of alcohol, a Tiffany & Co. bracelet worth
S$6,200 and more than S$2 million in a United Overseas Bank Ltd account.

A strong message needed to be sent that money laundering is a serious offence and affects Singapore’s
reputation as a financial hub, the prosecution told Su through an interpreter in court. Lawyers for Su had asked
for a reduced sentence, arguing that the victims for the illegal acts were not in Singapore.

Singapore has long been a haven for the super wealthy, with its low taxes, safety and stability. Threatening to
upend that carefully crafted image, however, is a sprawling $2.2 billion money laundering scandal. Though the
vast majority of investment in the city-state is above board, its famous openness to inflows is now under
scrutiny.

Su’s sentencing marks the next chapter in a scandal that has ensnared the world’s largest banks and raised
questions about the financial hub’s safeguards against illicit money flows. More developments are in store this
week with at least one other suspect in remand also planning to plead guilty, according to a scheduled court
hearing.

The police “will zealously keep our financial system clean and work hard to trace, seize and confiscate all
criminal property brought into Singapore,” David Chew, director of the white-collar crime agency, said in a
statement after Su’s sentence.

Su was born in China’s Fujian province and holds multiple passports including those from Cambodia and
Vanuatu. He was accused of seeking to launder proceeds from an illegal remote gambling service in the
Philippines targeting people in China.

(Updates with more detail from sentencing in third, fourth paragraphs, added police comment in seventh
paragraph. An earlier version was corrected to show that Su’s plea hadn’t yet been entered and accepted in
court.)

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