Money Launderer Tried to Flog High-Level Singaporean Clout
Politicians embarrassed by photos with money launderer and politically-connected billionaire
By: Toh Han Shih
Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP), which for decades has built its international reputation on an image of incorruptibility, is red-faced with what locals are calling “dinnergate” over 2020 and 2021 feasts at upmarket restaurants attended by PAP ministers and a convicted mainland individual later caught up in a 2023 money-laundering affair of over US$2 billion.
The money launderer, Su Haijin, a native of China’s Fujian province who carried a Cypriot passport, has used photographs of himself at a post-election dinner with two sitting and two former Singapore ministers to give the impression that he enjoyed powerful political connections in the city state, analysts said. The dinners were hosted by Sam Goi, a billionaire with extensive connections to the PAP at a time when 10 members of the money-laundering ring, who became known as the “Fujian gang,” were living large in luxurious Singapore condos and driving super-expensive cars. In the scandal, 109 foreign and Singapore companies were found to be registered under the names of the suspects, of which 66 were incorporated locally, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The 10 were arrested, convicted, and later deported…