Singapore seizes money launderer's assets in Swiss banks in S$1.8 billion case.

About S$92 million and S$33 million were seized from bank accounts held by Turkish national Vang Shuiming at Credit Suisse Singapore and Bank Julius Baer respectively, according to a police affidavit presented in the high court on Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, the total value of assets seized by investigating authorities now stands at S$1.8 billion.

Some S$1 billion was seized in simultaneous raids weeks ago.

• https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-arrests-10-foreigners-seizes-s1-bln-assets-money-laundering-probe-2023-08-16/

Investigators are still awaiting information from five unnamed financial institutions, the affidavit said.

Credit Suisse declined to comment. Bank Julius Baer did not respond to requests for comments.

The confiscated assets have included gold bars, designer handbags, jewellery, properties and luxury cars.

The scale of the money laundering operation has shocked the wealthy Asian financial hub, and raised concerns over whether there are loopholes in its financial system.

A state court denied bail for two of the accused foreigners, Wang Baosen and Su Baolin, on Wednesday.

The others had been due to appear in court via a video link, but remained in remand as the lawyers needed more time to speak with them.

OBSERVATION

When the complex Money Laundering case was pieced together and reported in August it became the biggest of its kind in Singapore.

At the time assets seized stood at S$737m and have now shot up to an eye-watering S$1.8bn and counting.

We are now starting to see the initial findings from the Intelligence obtained.

The initial summary of evidence has raised significant questions about crash barriers against illicit money flowing into one of the world’s most important financial hubs.

• Assets have been seized totalling S$125 million from the bank accounts of one of the suspects in the scandal.
• About S$92 million and S$33 million were seized from bank accounts held by Turkish national Vang Shuiming at
• Credit Suisse Singapore and
• Bank Julius Baer  

Some of the individuals who were arrested and charged this month held funds totalling millions in

• United Overseas Bank and
• The local units of
• Citigroup and
• RHB Bank.

They also allegedly used fake documents at

• Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp,
• Standard Chartered and
• CIMB Bank

As the facts start to become public, the read across to other financial hubs must not be overlooked. For now, it's the banks in Singapore who are under the spotlight, that could soon turn to many others around the globe. Singapore cannot be an isolated case as funds flowed elsewhere.

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Source

The Straits Times Illustrations/Cel Gulapa via REUTERS/File

SINGAPORE, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Police in Singapore investigating a major money laundering operation have seized S$125 million ($91.79 million) from the bank accounts of one of ten foreign suspects accused in the case.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/singapore-seizes-money-launderers-assets-swiss-banks-s18-bln-case-2023-09-06/