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MONEY launderer Su Jianfeng, one of the 10 foreign nationals arrested in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, was handed a jail term of 17 months on Monday (Jun 10).
This came after the 36-year-old Vanuatu national pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes Act (CDSA) and one count of forgery last Thursday.
These charges aside, Su Jianfeng faces another three counts of CDSA charges, seven counts of forgery and two charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, which were taken into consideration by the judge for sentencing purposes.
Su Jianfeng and his wife Chen Qiuyan have agreed to forfeit to the state at least 95 per cent of the around S$187 million worth of assets in their names that have been seized, totalling S$179 million.
According to the case’s statement of facts, Su Jianfeng was involved with an illegal remote gambling operation based in the Philippines from 2013. The operation ran a gambling activities website for people in China where online gambling is illegal.
Su Jianfeng relocated his children to Singapore in August 2019, then moved here in August 2020.
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During the island-wide raid on August 15, 2023, Su Jianfeng was found to be in possession of cash of S$550,903, representing criminal proceeds from the online gambling services.
On the forgery charge, the statement of facts noted that Su Jianfeng submitted a sales contract for a Dubai property sold to a Lin Zhenghu to Maybank Singapore, knowing it was false. This was allegedly to deceive the bank into believing he had legitimate sources of wealth.
The document was submitted to Maybank on or around Mar 17, 2021. Su Jianfeng claimed that deposits of S$1,029,970 and S$969,970 made by a firm named Tuo Xin You in December 2020 were proceeds from the sale of the property.
District Judge James Lee agreed with the prosecution’s submission that the significant amount of money laundered stands as an aggravating factor for Su Jianfeng.
The four CDSA charges Su Jianfeng faces involve a total sum of S$17.5 million, significantly higher than the eight counts of money laundering charges involving S$1.6 million faced by the other money launderer, Su Wenqiang, who was handed a jail term of 13 months.
The judge also agreed that Su Jianfeng’s agreement to forfeit 95 per cent of his seized assets, while Su Wenqiang has forfeited all his assets, stands as another aggravating factor.
While noting that an uplift from Su Wenqiang’s sentencing is needed, the judge said that the “calibration of the uplift will take into consideration the absolute value of forfeiture made.” Su Jianfeng forfeited a total of S$179 million in assets, while the value for Su Wenqiang stands at a much lower S$5.9 million.
On the forgery charge, the judge noted that the multiple counts of forgery committed by Su Jianfeng over a significant period of over 2 years are an aggravating factor.
He added that the fact that Su Jianfeng submitted forged documents to multiple banks, including Maybank, OCBC, Bank of Singapore, and Standard Chartered, serves as another aggravating factor to the accused’s persistent offence.
Overall, the judge ruled that Su Jianfeng is to be sentenced to 14 months in prison for his CDSA charge and 3 months for the forgery charge, to be served consecutively as the two charges represent “separate and distinct legal interests”.
The 17-month jail term would be backdated to Aug 15, 2023, when Su Jianfeng was arrested.
Su Jianfeng is the last one to be sentenced among the 10 that have been charged in Singapore’s largest money laundering case where assets worth about S$3 billion have been seized.
Nine other foreign nationals – Su Wenqiang, Su Haijin, Su Baolin, Wang Baosen, Vang Shuiming, Zhang Ruijin, Chen Qingyuan, Lin Baoying and Wang Dehai – were sentenced to between 13 and 16 months’ jail each.
The ten have forfeited about S$944.5 million in assets to the state so far. Five of them have been deported.
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