29-4-2024 (SINGAPORE) In a stern rebuke over Singapore’s largest ever money laundering scandal, Su Baolin, one of the 10 foreign nationals implicated, was sentenced on Monday to 14 months’ imprisonment by District Judge Ow Yong Tuck Leong.
The 48-year-old Cambodian passport holder faced 13 charges relating to forgery, fraud and money laundering offences. The court proceeded on three charges, with the remaining taken into consideration during sentencing.
Emphasising the need for strong deterrence, Judge Ow noted the sentence should “send a clear signal” to those attempting to engage in money laundering activities. Su’s jail term will be backdated to 15 August 2023, when he was first arrested.
More crucially, Su will be stripped of around S$65 million – a staggering 90% of the S$72 million seized from him, his wife and companies, after accounting for liabilities. The forfeited assets encompass cash, properties, jewellery, luxury goods and liquor.
Of the three charges, one centred on Su’s possession of S$777,220.50 in criminal proceeds stashed in two safes at 34A Nassim Road. According to court documents, Su was deeply embroiled in unlawful remote gambling operations from 2019 to 2023.
He ran online gambling websites netting around 4 million Tether (USDT) cryptocurrency tokens valued between S$5-6 million. Simultaneously, he was an active punter on such websites between 2020-2023 via the “Mark Six Group” WhatsApp chat providing gambling links.
Initially, Su claimed the seized cash derived from offloading his Tether holdings via a local crypto exchange. He later spun a tale of amassing RM3 million (S$854,000) winnings from a Genting trip financed by a junket operator’s RM500,000 loan – funds he allegedly converted to cash.
“Not only are the above two differing accounts inconsistent, but the circumstances also show he was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for the seized cash’s origins,” stated Deputy Public Prosecutor Eric Hu, dismissing Su’s conflicting stories as incredulous.
Chat logs also revealed Su had instructed unknown individuals to transfer over USDT 1.2 million into his crypto wallets before liquidating S$663,243 into physical cash – contradicting his earlier Genting claims.
As Su previously received USDT 100,000 from the “Mark Six Group”, Hu argued there were “reasonable suspicions” the seized money traced back to Su’s unlawful gambling proceeds.
Su was additionally convicted of possessing a S$332,281 Toyota Alphard likely purchased with criminal monies from his USDT 4 million online gambling earnings.
The third charge pertained to Su abetting Wang Junjie in fraudulently misrepresenting Xinbao Investment Holdings’ financials for 2019-2021 to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS). The duo aimed to portray Xinbao as progressively profitable to aid Su’s work pass renewals and permanent residency bid – which ultimately failed.
While Su agreed to forfeit most assets, the prosecution sought 14-16 months’ jail, citing the fraud’s three-year duration. His lawyer cited health issues like heart disease and a pending intestinal growth biopsy, pleading for 12 months 3 weeks’ jail to expedite medical follow-ups. However, the judge was unmoved as prisons could adequately care for Su.
Other charges considered included using criminal proceeds to purchase properties under his wife’s name, forging documents to dupe banks, and making false statements to authorities regarding purported employment details of his wife.
Of the nine other foreigners arrested, three received 13-14 month sentences, two are expected to plead guilty imminently, while four remain remanded as investigations continue into Singapore’s largest money laundering case netting over S$3 billion in seized assets thus far.
