SINGAPORE: Two former bank employees, both Chinese nationals, were charged in Singapore on Thursday in connection with the city-state’s biggest money laundering case, police said.
Assets worth more than S$3.0 billion (US$2.3 billion) — including upmarket properties, luxury cars and gold bars – were seized in massive police operations that began in August last year.
Ten foreigners were arrested – members of a group suspected of laundering proceeds of overseas criminal activity including scams and online gambling.
They were subsequently convicted and deported after serving jail terms.
They all hail from China, but most held passports from Cambodia, Turkey, Cyprus and Vanuatu.
On Thursday, two former bankers suspected of helping those convicted were charged at a district court.
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Liu Kai, 35, formerly with Bank Julius Baer & Co, was accused of helping one of those convicted to submit a forged Chinese tax document to open an account in Switzerland, according to the charge sheet.
Wang Qiming, 26, a former employee of Citibank Singapore Ltd, 26, was slapped with 10 charges, including forging documents for the purpose of cheating the bank and laundering funds belonging to one of the convicted.
Liew Yik Kit, 41, a Singaporean who served as a personal driver of a suspect who absconded, was also charged Thursday – with lying to the police and obstructing justice.
We take a very serious view of the laundering of criminal proceeds through our financial system,
David Chew, director of the Singapore police’s Commercial Affairs Department, a white-collar crime investigation agency.
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, he said in a statement.
