One of the defendants in Singapore's $3 billion money laundering case, Soo Boon Keong, has indicated his willingness to plead guilty. He became the first of the 10 defendants to announce his guilty plea at yesterday's (March 7) pre-trial conference.
The court adjourned the case to April 2 for Su Wenqiang's plea process.
Su Wenqiang is originally from Fujian and holds passports from China, Cambodia and Vanuatu. He faces 11 charges, including corruption and drug trafficking.
Investigating officers in Singapore revealed that Su Wenqiang was an executive in a remote gambling business in the Philippines and Cambodia, with a clientele dominated by Chinese gamblers.
In addition, Su Wenqiang, who has been wanted by Chinese authorities for illegal gambling activities since 2017, arranged to obtain a Vanuatu passport through an associate in the remote gambling business and used this passport to travel abroad.
Su Wenqiang moved to Singapore in 2021, where his two children are studying at international schools, but neither his wife nor children are Singaporean citizens or permanent residents, while his parents still live in China.
Soo Boon Keong is suspected of remotely manipulating his internet gambling business in the Philippines and using the proceeds to pay for the rent of his mansion in Singapore, and to buy luxury goods and fine wines, reportedly amounting to about S$477,000.
Last year, on August 15, last year, Singapore uncovered the country's largest-ever money laundering case, with the amount of money involved so far expanding to more than S$3 billion (about R16.19 billion). Apart from Soo Boon Keong, the other defendants are Soo Hai Jin, Soo Poh Lim, Soo Jian Feng, Teo Swee Jin, Lim Poh Ying, Ong Shui Ming, Tan Ching Yuen, Ong Poh Sam and Ong Teck Hai, whose cases are still at the stage of pre-trial conference.
UPDATE APRIL 5TH "Singapore's $100 Million Money Laundering Kingpin: Release Imminent!"
Another Guilty Plea Nets 13-Month Sentence and Asset Seizure!"
"3 Billion Money Laundering Case Sees Another Guilty Plea! Wang Baosen Sentenced to 13 Months in Prison, Over 8 Million Yuan in Assets Confiscated
In the ongoing saga of the 3-billion-yuan money laundering case, defendant Wang Baosen pleaded guilty on Tuesday (April 16) and was sentenced to 13 months in prison, marking the third conviction in this case. Additionally, all of Wang Baosen's assets totaling over 8 million yuan were confiscated.
Wang Baosen, 32, faced a total of eight charges, including offenses under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, using forged documents, providing false information to public officers, and contravening the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.
On Tuesday, he admitted to two of the charges, while the rest were considered by the judge during sentencing.
Wang Baosen and nine other individuals implicated in the case were arrested in a large-scale police operation on August 15, 2023, and were charged the following day. All ten individuals have been remanded in custody since then, totaling approximately eight months.
Assets worth over 8 million yuan were seized from Wang Baosen, including cash, properties, and vehicles, all of which have been confiscated following the conclusion of the case.
Two other defendants in the case, Su Wenqiang, 32, and Su Haijin, 41, had previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 13 months and 14 months in prison, respectively. Su Wenqiang's assets, valued at approximately 5,971,638 yuan and 1,247,000 Japanese yen, were all confiscated, while over 90% of Su Haijin's assets, totaling around 170 million yuan, were confiscated after sentencing.
The proceedings continue to shed light on the intricate web of illegal activities and the consequences faced by those involved in the 3-billion-yuan money laundering case."
Zhang Ruijin, the defendant in the $3 billion money laundering case, was sentenced to 15 months in jail after pleading guilty.
Zhang Ruijin, a defendant in a $3 billion money laundering case, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to the charge, which has so far resulted in five convictions, and Zhang Ruijin is the defendant with the longest sentence so far.
Chinese national Zhang Ruijin (45) faced a total of four counts of contravening the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act and four counts of using forged documents. He pleaded guilty to three of the counts on Tuesday (April 30), with the remaining counts to be taken into account by the judge at sentencing.
Zhang Ruijin's assets, including cash, property, vehicles and cryptocurrencies, totaled about $131 million. About 90% of the assets were confiscated after the verdict.
According to the case, Zhang Ruijin's CIMB account received a total of HK$138,179,100 (about S$24 million) between July and October 2020, according to the case. When the bank asked him to prove the source of the funds, he submitted a forged document about a real estate sale in Macau to the bank.
Also, his bank account received a transfer of HK$7.5 million on July 21, 2020 from a Hong Kong company. When asked to prove the source of funds, he submitted a forged loan agreement to the bank stating that a person had agreed to lend him HK$7.5 million.
In fact, both documents were forged, and Zhang Ruijin did not even know the seller or the borrower. The investigation revealed that the money was transferred from China to Hong Kong and then remitted from Hong Kong to Singapore, and it is believed that at least part of it was indirectly illegally obtained.
The prosecution pointed out that Zhang Ruijin's crime involved a transnational element and a certain degree of sophistication, and that in order to safeguard Singapore's reputation, the penalty must have a deterrent effect, and therefore recommended that the judge sentence him to 14 to 16 months' imprisonment.
The defendant's lawyer pleaded that Teo Swee Keat chose to plead guilty and voluntarily surrendered about 90% of his assets, which were worth nearly $118 million, and cooperated with the police during the investigation, and implored the judge to sentence him to no more than 14 months' imprisonment.
Zhang Ruijin and the other nine people involved in the case were caught in a mass arrest by police on August 15, 2023, and charged in court the next day (16). 10 people were not allowed to be released on bail after being charged, and have been remanded in custody for about eight-and-a-half months now.
Soo Bo Lin (42) was sentenced to 14 months in jail after pleading guilty on Monday (29), with about 65 million yuan of his seized assets confiscated. The first defendant to plead guilty, So Man Keung (32), was sentenced to 13 months in jail, while So Hoi Kam (41) and Wong Po Sum (32) were sentenced to 14 months and 13 months in jail respectively.
The case of another defendant, Wang Shuiming (43), was extended until May 14 for him to plead guilty, while the cases of the remaining four are still in the pre-trial conference stage.
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