SG is money-laundering hub

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Top brass of Japanese syndicate accused of laundering $628.7m for criminals lived in S’pore​

(Clockwise from left) Sotaro Ishikawa, Kosuke Yamada, Takamasa Ikeda, Hiroyuki Kawasaki and Shinya Ito. PHOTOS: OSAKA PREFECTURAL POLICE

David Sun
Crime Correspondent

Sep 20, 2024

SINGAPORE - The head of a syndicate in Japan accused of laundering some 70 billion yen (S$628.7 million) for criminals there had a home in Singapore and was appointed director of a software firm here, The Straits Times has found.
Sotaro Ishikawa, who fled Japan in February amid an investigation by the police, led the Rivaton Group.
The criminal syndicate is believed to comprise more than 40 people.
The 35-year-old lived in a condominium in Bukit Timah, and was registered as the director of a local software company, also named Rivaton, in March.
Checks by ST showed that a number of others in the syndicate were also appointed directors of companies in Singapore over the last two years.
Rivaton’s second in command, Kosuke Yamada, was appointed director of local software company KO Enterprise Next in September 2023.
The 39-year-old, who goes by Yamada Kosuke here, also has a registered address in Singapore at the same condo as Ishikawa.

Both men told the Japanese authorities they were Singapore residents when they were arrested on July 9, after flying back to Japan from Dubai, reported Japanese news agency Jiji Press.
The third-ranking officer of the group – Takamasa Ikeda, 38 – was arrested on Sept 2 at Kansai International Airport after taking a flight from Singapore to Japan.
Ikeda has a registered address in Singapore at a landed property in Novena. He became the director of local advertising company Glosal in April.

According to the Osaka Prefectural Police, the group had systematically set up shell companies in Japan from 2021, and used the corporate accounts of these companies to launder criminal funds linked to scams and illegal gambling.
At least 4,000 accounts and 500 companies involved in the scheme have been uncovered by the Japanese authorities so far.
On May 21, the police arrested 12 people linked to the group in Toyama, Japan.
The authorities in Japan released a wanted notice in August with the names and pictures of the five alleged leaders of the group who reportedly left the country between January and April.
They include Ishikawa, Ikeda and Yamada.
Two others were arrested in the Philippines, including Hiroyuki Kawasaki, 37.

He was about to board a flight to Singapore on Aug 14 when he was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila by the Philippine authorities, reported NHK.
Business records show he became the director of local consultancy firm Hero Intercontinental in March.
The fifth wanted man – Shinya Ito, 37 – had initially fled to Taiwan before flying to the Philippines to hide. He was arrested there on Sept 9.
The Philippines does not currently have an extradition treaty with Japan, but Japanese news outlets have reported that both Kawasaki and Ito are expected to be sent back and handed over to the Japanese authorities in due course.
Checks by ST found that Ishikawa, Ikeda, Yamada and Kawasaki still have valid employment passes here.

Singapore PR​

The Singapore companies linked to the wanted men were all set up by a lawyer who is a Japanese citizen and a Singapore permanent resident.
He is registered with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority as a corporate service provider.
He said he set up the companies on the instructions of lawyers at two different firms, and added that he had performed due diligence checks on the Japanese men and their purported business dealings.
“Even though (the law firms) had conducted their own checks to meet the regulatory requirements, I met the suspects via Zoom as well as in person in Japan for verification purposes, and I visited their office in Japan for further verifications and due diligence and to witness their passports,” he said.
“After the whole $3 billion money laundering case in Singapore, I was extra careful. But there was nothing that appeared to be suspicious.”
He said that he questioned the men about their source of wealth and why they wanted to set up companies here.

The men told him the money was from the Rivaton Group, which at the time appeared to be a legitimate business, and that they wanted to set up the companies here for tax purposes.
He said that, as a lawyer, he knew the importance of conducting thorough checks to prevent money laundering.
His checks showed that the men lived in rented properties in Singapore and did not appear to own luxury vehicles.
They relied on public transport instead.
He said that he flew to Japan twice to check their identities and office premises, and found the business set-up to be normal.
The lawyer said he last met the men in April.
Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun reported that the Rivaton Group, which claims to be a payment solutions provider, had allegedly laundered funds for multiple criminal groups.
A senior police official was quoted saying the Rivaton Group operated just like a normal company, with members typically working office hours, attending meetings and being paid a salary.
The company had a handbook on how to answer questions from auditors and financial institutions to avoid suspicion.
The syndicate has been accused of using a system that automatically transferred funds from one bank account to another, with transfers triggered by either account balances or time passed.

Ishikawa, Yamada and Ikeda were the top brass, while a layer of executives split into different departments reported to them.
These departments included one that managed the automated system, another that oversaw transfers, and another that handled the opening of accounts and responding to queries from financial institutions.
A third tier of low-level collaborators was recruited through social networking sites to set up the shell companies.
The group also set up bases in Tokyo and Toyama, so it could still operate in the event of a system outage.
The lawyer in Singapore said he was shocked when he recognised one of the men arrested in the probe in Japan.
He immediately filed a suspicious transaction report here and contacted the Japanese police with information.
Shortly after, he flew to Japan to provide more details on the possible whereabouts of the wanted men, who were later arrested.
The lawyer said he has not been contacted by the Singapore authorities in relation to his suspicious transaction report or the case involving the Rivaton Group, but added that he has been cooperating with the Japanese authorities.
He said: “I want the Singapore authorities to contact me, actually, so that they’ll know I did my best and there was nothing else I could do.”

 

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Jail for woman who allowed her firm’s bank account to receive scam benefits totalling over $1m​

Shaffiq Alkhatib
Court Correspondent

Nov 05, 2024


SINGAPORE - A company’s sole director got involved in a scheme with a money laundering syndicate and the firm’s bank account later received the benefits of an impersonation scam totalling US$952,000 (over S$1.27 million).
Chinese national Chen Binjue, 41, who was then heading public relations firm Dionysuss Lifestyle, was sentenced to two years and four months’ jail on Nov 5.
The Singapore permanent resident had pleaded guilty to one count dealing with the benefits of criminal conduct.
Eight other charges for offences including forgery were considered during sentencing.
The prosecution said that almost all the money, save for around $3,000, has been returned to the victim – a firm based in the United Kingdom (UK).
Chen incorporated Dionysuss Lifestyle in 2016, but a search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority on Nov 5 revealed that she is no longer a director at the company.
In 2019, she got involved in a scheme with a money laundering syndicate made up of unknown people from China.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu told the court: “She agreed to allow Dionysuss’ (bank account) in Singapore to be used to receive the syndicate’s monies.
“She had reasonable grounds to believe the syndicate was engaged in criminal conduct and that its monies were benefits of (crime).”
On June 25, 2019, a director at a firm called International Data Corporation UK (IDC UK) fell victim to a phone impersonation scam when a person pretending to be his superior contacted him.

The director was told to make arrangements for a transaction as part of IDC UK’s “business acquisition” and that a lawyer would be in touch with him.
A person who pretended to be a lawyer then contacted the director who was asked to arrange for a transaction of US$952,000 to Dionysuss Lifestyle’s Maybank account.
The director then gave instructions for the transaction to take place and the money was deposited into the account the next day.
On June 27, 2019, $296,639 was transferred from it to a Hong Kong company called New Ginwa.
Maybank Singapore was later alerted of the ill-gotten gains in Dionysuss Lifestyle’s bank account.
The bank then froze the account and asked for the $296,639 payment to be recalled.

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) seized the money in Dionysuss Lifestyle’s Maybank account on June 28, 2019.
Later that day, Chen realised that she could not perform transactions on the account and called Maybank’s contact centre.
She was told that the bank needed supporting documents relating to several transactions including the ones involving the $296,639 and the more than $1.27 million.
Chen then forged multiple invoices over non-existent transactions that purportedly involved the money and e-mailed them to Maybank.
On July 12, 2019, the director at IDC UK lodged a police report with the Singapore authorities about the phone scam.
Six days later, more than $290,000 was successfully recalled and credited back to Dionysuss Lifestyle’s Maybank account.
Separately, Chen made plans to obtain the release of the funds from the account.
In late 2019, she met up with one Wilson Ho and offered him $2,000 per month in exchange for becoming a director at Dionysuss Lifestyle.
He accepted the offer, and she promised him a cut of the money if it was released.
Chen also appointed a lawyer whose firm wrote to CAD, stating that it was acting for Mr Ho and asked for the funds in the Maybank account to be released.
Upon further correspondence, Chen provided two of the earlier forged invoices to CAD on or around April 22, 2020.
On Aug 12 that year, CAD issued an order for Maybank to return the funds in Dionysuss Lifestyle’s account to IDC UK.
More than $1.27 million was returned to IDC UK two days later.
Chen’s bail was set at $40,000 on Nov 5, and she is expected to begin serving her sentence on Nov 12.

 

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Super-rich Indian families join Ambanis in setting up family offices in Singapore​

Singapore is now home to almost 60 per cent of Asia’s family offices. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Angela Tan
Senior Business Correspondent

Nov 07, 2024

SINGAPORE – A new cohort of young, successful Indian business elites are joining the Ambanis, the family behind Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, in setting up their family offices in Singapore to preserve and grow their wealth.
The Ambanis, one of India’s wealthiest and most influential families, set up a family office here in 2022.
Many of these families come from humble beginnings and now want to ensure their prosperity is passed down to the next generation, along with the values that helped grow it.
To avoid family feuds, they are setting up family offices here for effective governance, communication and decision-making. An estimated US$4 trillion (S$5.3 trillion) of wealth among the Indian diaspora will transfer from one generation to the next in the coming decade, according to DBS Bank.
Mr Shee Tse Koon, head of consumer banking and wealth management at DBS, said: “Singapore is a top destination for ultra-high-net-worth individual Indian families looking to establish a family office outside of India, thanks to its stable political and economic climate, favourable business environment and tax regime.”
Mr Arvind Tiku, founder and group chairman of investment firm AT Capital, said Singapore’s regulatory environment, as well as its credibility and transparency, places it ahead of other destinations.
Singapore is now home to almost 60 per cent of Asia’s family offices. The number of wealthy families coming here is projected to have risen from 2,800 in 2022 to 3,200 in 2023, DBS said.

The bank on Nov 5 launched its sixth annual family office report, with the 2024 edition examining the Indian family offices.
It estimated that there are more than 13,200 Indians with a net worth greater than US$30 million, and this number is expected to increase rapidly.
In 2023, around 6,500 high-net-worth Indians were estimated to have left India for destinations such as Dubai, Singapore, Europe and the US.

As their wealth increases, many wealthy Indians seek a formal family office structure to avoid compliance and governance issues.
“Typically, what you’ll find in the joint family system is that the operating company will also manage the family’s investments,” said Mr Amit Patni, founder and director of Raay Foundation.
“People tend to use company cash flow to keep expanding without thinking about safeguarding enough money for the family,” he added.

Mr Patni’s father and his brothers started Patni Computers in the 1970s and were one of the pioneers in the information technology space in India.
Over the decades, the company grew to close to US$1.5 billion. They sought a public listing in 2004, and in 2011 IT firm iGate bought Patni Computers for US$1.5 billion.
After the sale of the business and the division of wealth, Mr Patni set up a single family office – Raay Global Investments – to ensure his inheritance became a vehicle for growth and entrepreneurship.
“My family office has done all the trust management and estate planning for my children, so if anything happens to me, it will continue working for the family without any confusion,” he said.
Rich Indian diaspora who are not yet in the billionaire category – typically families with more than US$5 million in investible assets – make their first foray into more formal office structures through a multi-family office (MFO), which has emerged as a fast-growing segment of the industry.
An MFO lets different wealthy families pool their resources to access high-calibre, personalised financial advice while remaining cost-effective.
Mr Vimal Shah, chairman of East African fast-moving consumer goods company Bidco Africa, relies on a network of MFOs scattered across Singapore, Mauritius, Dubai and Switzerland, rather than establishing a single-family office.
“They provide us with all the details and advice about where to invest, which the family then digests before deciding what we want to do,” he said.
This international approach is increasingly applied by super-rich Indians in the diaspora seeking opportunities beyond their homeland.
When it comes to parting with their money, the younger super-rich Indians and those living overseas are increasingly investing in technology-based start-ups to build wealth.
Over the past two decades, Indian family offices have backed more than 200 start-ups and remain active participants in start-up funding rounds, the DBS report said.
Until recently, wealthy Indian families were most likely to invest their wealth in physical assets, such as real estate and gold. Around a third of their assets comprise residential real estate properties, both at home and abroad.
But high interest rates and soft property markets post-Covid-19 have left some families rethinking the value of their real estate investments.
Mr Patni said: “Investing in real estate in India isn’t as easy as it might be in Singapore or elsewhere, and it’s also a very volatile sector.
“I thought for a long time that the real estate environment in the UK was very good, and then Brexit, Covid-19 and the Ukraine war hit, and suddenly the returns weren’t great.”

Today, Indian diaspora family offices are diversifying their asset mixes to incorporate more public and private equity market investments, including alternatives.
Geography also matters. Super-rich Indians prefer the US for global investing, although some also show interest in emerging markets such as India and the Middle East. Rich Indians living overseas also tend to prefer investing outside of India, compared with those who reside at home.

 

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$3b money laundering case: $1.85b in assets surrendered by 15 suspects on the run​

The total amount of assets surrendered in the case is almost $2.8 billion so far, with $944 million in assets previously surrendered. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
David Sun and Nadine Chua

Nov 19, 2024

SINGAPORE – Assets worth about $1.85 billion have been surrendered to the state by 15 foreigners who are on the run from the police in Singapore’s largest money laundering case.

This brings the total amount of assets surrendered in the case to almost $2.8 billion so far, with $944 million in assets previously surrendered by 10 money launderers who were jailed and deported.

On Nov 18, the police said 15 of the 17 suspects who are on the run have been “dealt with” and have agreed to surrender their assets. They have also been barred from returning to Singapore.

In response to media queries, the police named the 15 as Su Yongcan, Wang Huoqiang, Su Fuxiang, Su Binghai, Wang Bingang, Su Shuiming, Su Shuijun, Ke Wendi, Wang Shuiting, Chen Zhiqiang, Liu Jiarong, Chen Peiyong, Zhao Dongying, Chen Mulin and Hu Chengmei.

Their lawyers had contacted the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and agreed to surrender their assets in return for the withdrawal of the Interpol Red and Blue Notices against them.

Red Notices seek the location and arrest of a person, while a Blue Notice is to collect additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a criminal investigation.

The police agreed to this in consultation with the AGC, which advised that it will be difficult to have the 17 foreign nationals extradited as their whereabouts are unknown and the evidence available may not be sufficient for extradition.

Investigations into the other two people on the run are ongoing, and their assets worth about $144.9 million remain seized or the subject of prohibition of disposal orders.

The police identified the two as Xu Haika and Xu Hainan, and said their lawyers have not made contact with the AGC, and so their assets will be dealt with under the Anti-Money Laundering and Other Matters Act, which was passed in August.

This will take some time, added the police.


The $3 billion money laundering case saw an initial 10 foreign nationals jailed in 2024 after they were arrested in multiple raids on Aug 15, 2023.

In June 2024, the police said that besides the 10 who were caught, another 17 people are under investigation in relation to the case.

None of the 17, who had left Singapore, has returned since the start of the probe.

In the early hours of Aug 15, 2023, more than 400 police officers conducted simultaneous islandwide raids, nabbing nine men and one woman who were linked to organised crime, including scams and online gambling.

The locations included a Sentosa Cove bungalow; good class bungalows in Lewis Road, Third Avenue, Bishopsgate, Nassim Road and Ewart Park; and condominiums in Tomlinson Road, Leonie Hill Road and Paterson Hill.

The 10 convicted were Su Haijin, Su Baolin, Vang Shuiming, Wang Dehai, Su Jianfeng, Chen Qingyuan, Su Wenqiang, Wang Baosen, Zhang Ruijin and his lover Lin Baoying.

All are Chinese nationals who also hold citizenships of countries like Cambodia, Dominica, Vanuatu and Turkey. They were jailed and deported.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in July 2024 that no foreign government or agency has made claims for the forfeited cash and assets from the 10 people. The assets include luxury cars, property, watches, handbags, jewellery, alcohol and Bearbrick ornaments.
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Another 24 people were named in a list circulated by the authorities to financial institutions and dealers of precious stones and metals, for them to report any transactions involving these individuals.

Among the 24 names are those of the wives and girlfriends of the 10.

The list also includes Su Yongcan and Wang Huoqiang, who both had Interpol Red Notices issued against them for money laundering offences.

Investigations by The Straits Times uncovered the names of other individuals linked to the group, including Su Fuxiang, Su Binghai, Su Shuiming and Su Shuijun.

All of them were among the 17 on the run.

In August 2024, Su Binghai’s personal driver, Liew Yik Kit, 41, was the first Singaporean charged in relation to the money laundering case.

Liew allegedly lied to police that Su Binghai did not leave any valuables in his possession, when he actually had the businessman’s four luxury cars – a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, a Ferrari F8 Spider and a Ferrari Stradale.

He allegedly disposed of the four cars, causing the police to miss out on seizing them, and obstructed the course of justice.
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Two Chinese nationals who are former relationship managers at banks were also charged in August.

Liu Kai, 35, who was a relationship manager at Swiss private bank Julius Baer, was charged with abetting Lin Baoying in submitting a forged tax document in November 2020.

Wang Qiming, 26, a former Citibank relationship manager, was charged with laundering $481,678 in cash he collected on behalf of Su Baolin, and forging a loan document to deceive Citibank about the source of Vang Shuiming’s funds.

The police said investigations and court proceedings against others who have allegedly facilitated the money laundering activities are ongoing.

The forfeited assets and cash from the case will go into the Consolidated Fund, which is similar to a bank account held by the Government, out of which government expenditures are made.

After news of the money laundering case broke in August 2023, an inter-ministerial committee was set up to review Singapore’s financial system and strengthen its anti-money laundering regime.

The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Anti-Money Laundering published a report on Oct 4, 2024, detailing new measures to tighten anti-money laundering efforts, including advising dealers of high-value goods on how to identify red flags in suspicious transactions.

On Nov 18, the police said the Government will continue to enhance Singapore’s defences against money laundering to safeguard the country’s hard-earned reputation as a trusted and reputable international financial centre governed by the rule of law.

They added: “We will continue to welcome legitimate businesses and investors, but will spare no effort to take down criminals who seek to exploit the Singapore ecosystem for criminal gains.”