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A THIRD individual in the more than S$3 billion money laundering case has been sentenced to 13 months’ jail.
Wang Baosen, a Chinese and Vanuatu passport holder, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Apr 16) to two charges of money laundering. Six others were taken into consideration in sentencing.
Wang was found to have possessed nearly S$600,000 in benefits of criminal conduct in an HSBC bank account. The criminal conduct was namely offences related to unlawful remote gambling operation overseas, the charge sheet noted. He was handed six months’ jail.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Foo Shi Hao told the court that the S$600,000, which were proceeds from his involvement with unlawful remote gambling, was placed in the HSBC bank account of his wife He.
When HSBC asked for the source of the funds to ensure its legitimacy, Wang instigated his wife to forge a supporting document dated Oct 21, 2022, that she had a loan agreement with Regili International and the S$600,000 was a repayment of the said loan. This forged document was related to one of the charges taken into consideration in Wang’s sentencing.
When questioned by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) on this sum, Wang first claimed it was loan repayments, then later said it was proceeds from a sale involving an overseas property owned by his father.
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However, there was no evidence of the loan or the sale, said DPP Foo.
As for other money laundering charge that he was sentenced for, the DPP said Wang did not have known sources of legitimate income and there was reasonable grounds to believe that he had used his benefits from unlawful remote gambling to pay around S$1.5 million to Shun Tak Cuscaden Residential.
This amounts to 10 per cent of the purchase price of of a unit at Park Nova condominium in Tomlinson Road under his wife He Huifang’s name, and was placed in Shun Tak Cuscaden Residential’s OCBC bank account. The amount was taken from a company, Hornet Bee International Trading.
For this charge, he was sentenced to 13 months’ jail.
Both sentences are to run concurrently and backdated to Aug 15, 2023, when he was arrested in an island-wide anti-money laundering blitz.
Around S$8 million of Wang and his wife’s assets have been seized. Both Wang and his wife have agreed to forfeit the full amount to the state, the court heard.
The prosecution sought 13 to 15 months’ jail for Wang, taking reference from the sentencing of another money launderer in the S$3 billion case, Su Haijin. Su was sentenced to 14 months’ jail on Apr 4.
DPP Foo noted the similar amounts involved in Su and Wang’s charges, as well as their early indication of a guilty plea. However, he added that Wang’s charges still involved a higher quantum than Su’s, and submitted that a sentence longer than Su’s could be warranted.
Wang’s counsel Favian Kang of Adelphi Law sought 13 months’ jail for his client, the lower end of the prosecution’s range.
In mitigation, Kang said that Wang’s overall criminality was lower than Su’s, as Su’s seized assets are “20 times, or more than 20 times” the total amount of seized assets in Wang’s case.
Su had around S$170 million in assets seized and was still able to retain around 10 per cent of that amount, while Wang is giving up all of his seized assets, he added. Su also faced 14 charges, six more than the eight faced by Wang.
On the issue of the forged document, Kang said that Wang’s charges only involved one forged loan agreement submitted to HSBC. Su’s case, meanwhile, involved faked financial statements submitted to Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and three banks.
In his judgement, District Judge James Elisha Lee said the overriding consideration for the case should be general deterrence, due to the impact of impact of transnational money laundering in Singapore and the compelling need to deter such acts here.
He noted that Wang had showed a “degree of persistence in offending and disregard for the law”, as his charges were spread over a number of years.
However, he agreed with Kang that Wang’s overall criminality was lower than Su’s, noting that Wang had agreed to forfeit all his seized assets and had lower overall charges.
Lying to CAD about fund source
Other charges taken into consideration included Wang lying to a CAD officer on four separate occasions between Oct 2 and Oct 18, 2023, about the source of his funds and assets. He said the money in a Maybank account as well as the sum for the Park Nova unit was paid for by his profits from the purchase and sale of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Wang also told the officer that nearly S$500,000 he received in a UOB bank account was money received from his father’s sale of property. However, these were untrue.
Another two charges were related to him making false statements to the Controller of Work Passes under the Manpower Ministry. One charge noted that he told the Controller of Work Passes that he was to be employed as an assistant marketing manager at a firm known as Tonta, but had no intention of doing so. The second noted that he conspired with one Tan Chee Wan to make a false statement to the Controller of Work Passes, in order to renew Wang’s S Pass.
The last two charges taken into consideration were related to money laundering. Wang was charged with possessing S$112,000, 4,600 yuan (S$860) and US$10, as well as a black Toyota Alphard Hybrid Elegance valued at about S$284,000, which were suspected to be benefits of criminal conduct.
Alongside Su Haijin and Wang, another money launderer involved in the case has been sentenced. Su Wenqiang was jailed 13 months on Apr 2. Seven more accused are still in remand.
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