Wouldn't it be great if Golden Triangle drug lords who launder and spend their money in the Republic of Singapore were treated in the same way as the hapless drug mules who are hanged without mercy?
Nothing openly proven yet. I don't think there's any media reports so far explicitly linking their illicit wealth to the Golden Triangle drug trade, though some have mentioned illegal online gambling/scams.
The faces of the suspected money launderers that stared back at us from the landing pages of Singapore's media outlets were unimpressive. They looked more like illegal cigarette vendors on some of Singapore's seedier streets than multi-millionaires. Yet these were the 'multinationals' who had allegedly siphoned off close to 2 billion Singapore dollars from unsuspecting victims of scam calls in Cambodia, snaked a trail to Turkey, Cyprus, and Vanuatu, and finally landed up as cash, cars, and condominiums in some of Singapore's most premier residential addresses.
Putting a face to the alleged crime is a step in the right direction, and this is where the focus should be to stamp out illegal activity. Behind every financial transaction, there is an entity and behind every entity, there is a walking, talking human being. Capturing the data of each person who enters the country seeking employment or residence and cross checking his or her data with those from other countries should be uppermost on any government serious about tackling illicit money flows.
Some suspects had been on wanted lists in other countries before arriving in Singapore. One of them, Vang Shuiming, a Chinese national, was issued a notice to surrender in China in August 2022 by the public security bureau in Zibo - a prefecture-level city in China's Shandong province - over his involvement in an illegal gambling syndicate. Vang is said to have ties to a syndicate that was busted in May 2022, with more than 10 million yuan (US$1.3 million) in funds seized. The notice said nine people, including Vang, had fled abroad.
If the immigration and police databases of China, Singapore, and Turkey (where he holds a passport) were aligned and shared, Vang Shuiming would have been apprehended at Singapore's Changi Airport upon touch down, not years later after he had amassed more than $200 million Singapore dollars’ worth of assets.
It is foolhardy to place the burden of scrutinising money trails on banks, real estate agents, remittance houses and money lenders whose profits swell whenever large amounts of money change hands.
In this day and age when social media sites and search engines are supposedly tracking your every move and sending you highly targeted advertisements, it isn't difficult to envisage the same massive databases and computing power being used to track down suspected criminals if data is captured, shared and cross-checked diligently by the immigration and police of countries around the globe.
The problem is with agreeing to cross border intelligence sharing of this sort. With China in particular. If any onus is on anybody to share such info it should have been the PRC MPS considering that they were already wanting several of these suspects back then (but chose not to openly declare them or notify external governments in the region for whatever reason). Criminal databases are also jealously guarded symbols of statehood, not to simply be shared willy nilly.
There's a saying amongst business circles about rich PRCs. "You don't get rich by being a clean business person in China. And you don't get rich by having no political connections in China." I'll just leave it at that.
Agree with you that it is foolhardy to place the burden of scrutinising money trails on the very individuals and institutions that stand to make the most money out of them. Then again it fits right into the PAP government's self righteous proclamation that if a government can't "ownself check ownself", then that's something to be very worried about. With an example set from the top, not a surprise how it cascades down into general society.
Dear Andy - thanks for your comments. What do you think could be the reason why China does not disclose the names of the wanted criminal? Also why is a criminal database a symbol of statehood which should be guarded? I would have thought the general objective would be to bring them to justice. I am coming from a totally ignorant position so please excuse what may seem to be some very basic questions.
Because to China it would be embarrassing to disclose so many names of their wanted criminals to foreigners. Same reason why they'd rather ringfence their criminal database and eschew intelligence sharing with other countries unless they have no other choice but to do so. Criminal databases are usually covered under countries' Official Secrets Acts, and in themselves are a powerful symbol of statehood as it represents the power of the state to deem an individual as innocent or guilty of a crime, even long after said crime has been addressed and justice meted out.
You're right, in an ideal world the general objective would be to bring criminals to justice no matter where they are from, no matter where they're residing. In reality however, as the saying goes "be careful what you wish for", and "you're not going to like what you find". Considering the nature of not just the money laundering bust in SG but also many simultaneous busts of Chinese-origin criminals who made vast sums of monies off either scamming others (many who are Chinese citizens) or illegal gambling/drugs largely fuelled by Chinese demand and monies, I leave it up to your own conclusions as to whether China's recent domestic economic troubles and collapsing government finances are the true reason behind China doing its damndest to stamp out any possible avenue for capital flight out of China be it willingly or unwittingly.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/one-or-more-in-28b-money-laundering-case-may-be-linked-to-family-offices-that-got-tax-incentives
Latest report in the SG government-controlled Straits Times all but confirms the provenance and veracity of this article.
White on the outside but the opposite on the inside I guess.
Wouldn't it be great if Golden Triangle drug lords who launder and spend their money in the Republic of Singapore were treated in the same way as the hapless drug mules who are hanged without mercy?
The group of (10++ Pax) Chinese arrested in Singapore are linked to the Golden Triangle operation
Let's see if they hang. It's no secret that Singapore has provided hospitality of all sorts to genocidal, narco-corrupt Burmese Generals.
Nothing openly proven yet. I don't think there's any media reports so far explicitly linking their illicit wealth to the Golden Triangle drug trade, though some have mentioned illegal online gambling/scams.
The faces of the suspected money launderers that stared back at us from the landing pages of Singapore's media outlets were unimpressive. They looked more like illegal cigarette vendors on some of Singapore's seedier streets than multi-millionaires. Yet these were the 'multinationals' who had allegedly siphoned off close to 2 billion Singapore dollars from unsuspecting victims of scam calls in Cambodia, snaked a trail to Turkey, Cyprus, and Vanuatu, and finally landed up as cash, cars, and condominiums in some of Singapore's most premier residential addresses.
Putting a face to the alleged crime is a step in the right direction, and this is where the focus should be to stamp out illegal activity. Behind every financial transaction, there is an entity and behind every entity, there is a walking, talking human being. Capturing the data of each person who enters the country seeking employment or residence and cross checking his or her data with those from other countries should be uppermost on any government serious about tackling illicit money flows.
Some suspects had been on wanted lists in other countries before arriving in Singapore. One of them, Vang Shuiming, a Chinese national, was issued a notice to surrender in China in August 2022 by the public security bureau in Zibo - a prefecture-level city in China's Shandong province - over his involvement in an illegal gambling syndicate. Vang is said to have ties to a syndicate that was busted in May 2022, with more than 10 million yuan (US$1.3 million) in funds seized. The notice said nine people, including Vang, had fled abroad.
If the immigration and police databases of China, Singapore, and Turkey (where he holds a passport) were aligned and shared, Vang Shuiming would have been apprehended at Singapore's Changi Airport upon touch down, not years later after he had amassed more than $200 million Singapore dollars’ worth of assets.
It is foolhardy to place the burden of scrutinising money trails on banks, real estate agents, remittance houses and money lenders whose profits swell whenever large amounts of money change hands.
In this day and age when social media sites and search engines are supposedly tracking your every move and sending you highly targeted advertisements, it isn't difficult to envisage the same massive databases and computing power being used to track down suspected criminals if data is captured, shared and cross-checked diligently by the immigration and police of countries around the globe.
The problem is with agreeing to cross border intelligence sharing of this sort. With China in particular. If any onus is on anybody to share such info it should have been the PRC MPS considering that they were already wanting several of these suspects back then (but chose not to openly declare them or notify external governments in the region for whatever reason). Criminal databases are also jealously guarded symbols of statehood, not to simply be shared willy nilly.
There's a saying amongst business circles about rich PRCs. "You don't get rich by being a clean business person in China. And you don't get rich by having no political connections in China." I'll just leave it at that.
Agree with you that it is foolhardy to place the burden of scrutinising money trails on the very individuals and institutions that stand to make the most money out of them. Then again it fits right into the PAP government's self righteous proclamation that if a government can't "ownself check ownself", then that's something to be very worried about. With an example set from the top, not a surprise how it cascades down into general society.
Dear Andy - thanks for your comments. What do you think could be the reason why China does not disclose the names of the wanted criminal? Also why is a criminal database a symbol of statehood which should be guarded? I would have thought the general objective would be to bring them to justice. I am coming from a totally ignorant position so please excuse what may seem to be some very basic questions.
Because to China it would be embarrassing to disclose so many names of their wanted criminals to foreigners. Same reason why they'd rather ringfence their criminal database and eschew intelligence sharing with other countries unless they have no other choice but to do so. Criminal databases are usually covered under countries' Official Secrets Acts, and in themselves are a powerful symbol of statehood as it represents the power of the state to deem an individual as innocent or guilty of a crime, even long after said crime has been addressed and justice meted out.
You're right, in an ideal world the general objective would be to bring criminals to justice no matter where they are from, no matter where they're residing. In reality however, as the saying goes "be careful what you wish for", and "you're not going to like what you find". Considering the nature of not just the money laundering bust in SG but also many simultaneous busts of Chinese-origin criminals who made vast sums of monies off either scamming others (many who are Chinese citizens) or illegal gambling/drugs largely fuelled by Chinese demand and monies, I leave it up to your own conclusions as to whether China's recent domestic economic troubles and collapsing government finances are the true reason behind China doing its damndest to stamp out any possible avenue for capital flight out of China be it willingly or unwittingly.
CBDCs surely will solve this issue.
Pun intended.