Singapore's Biggest Ever Money Laundering Case: How Does It Affect Me? | Talking Point

[@maycheung3506]

I love his explanation: if you want to clean your dirty laundries you need to choose a good brand washing machine. This explains everything

[@TheCollateraldamage1]

It's also an extremely PC answer that's hardly accurate. All around the world, the countries with the highest amounts of fraud through the financial system are countries that have turned a blind eye to policing dirty money flowing through the system - not countries with the "best brand of washing machine". Singapore is not some kind of exceptional unicorn that's just a magnet for fraud despite all their efforts to prevent it. The reality is big financial hubs become big financial hubs because they close one eye for the ultra wealthy. Switzerland, Singapore, Panama, Cayman Islands, Bahamas all do this.

[@ongtayjoojames-ow1bs]

Psychologically well commented, indeed...!!!☝️👍🤨

[@weiweishi2811]

Singapre is a paradise for money laundry. haha

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$

[@DatoDog]

ofcos, where else? Malaysia? they themselves already scamming internally and there isnt any smart firm/company to help them. Worst, dirty money launder in Ringgit will depreciate so fast that they have nothing in the end. lol

[@mzamroni]

The 10,000 Singapore dollar bill is often used to transport dirty money

[@ArabicReja973]

The $2B money laundering case shows Singapore 🇸🇬 is a haven for Chinese money laundrers. This is only a floating part of an iceberg.

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$ world's best place to money launder whoop whoop

[@vincecarlo]

105 HIGH END Properties Bought since 2017 NO RED FLAGS ? CPIB In DEEP SLUMBER for PAST 6 yrs ?

[@jeffjohnson5053]

Mainland chinese, your Singapore let TOO many into your country. They are all family and friends of the beijing communists party. Of course they will committ financial crimes!!

[@Jane306]

​@@vincecarlothere are many crazy riches who invest in singapore. If they looked like they are not related it is possible to pass thru the screening... Very hard to tell...

[@alainportant6412]

@@Jane306 Hmmmm. Not something I’d write home about. Unfortunately an average wine at a not so average price. Purchased at a restaurant during a work dinner and a disappointed with what we received for what we paid. Overall the wine was ok, but basic and whilst reasonably balanced not complex at all for a wine of this region. I’d probably chose the wine up on the list next time.

[@ArabicReja973]

Last year, the Philippines 🇵🇭 authorities closed 175 Chinese gambling organizations, and deported 40,000 Chinese nationals who entered into the country and worked illegally, many as *online scammers and other shady activities.*

[@sn5301679]

Meanwhile here in Indonesia, we had 2,7 millions idiots who addicted to online gambling. Which owned by Chinese in Cambodia. It will cause a lots of negative effects here.

[@jeffjohnson5053]

Mainland chinese, your Singapore let TOO many into your country. They are all family and friends of the beijing communists party. Of course they will committ financial crimes!!

[@ongtayjoojames-ow1bs]

Dirty business, is big business. Welcome to reality...!!!☝️😏

[@Champsterz]

​@@sn5301679Thailand suffering the same fate

[@chenghonggoh4746]

This latest case started in 2017 but actions against the perpetrators were taken only in 2023. It take well over five years to detect and for actions to be taken. This begs the question of how robust our system is against money laundering.

[@grozaphy]

or maybe they held out to get a big catch/find concreted evidence

[@jbrkjferkjbekjb]

That’s 6 years

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$ world's best place to money launder whoop whoop

[@jeffjohnson5053]

Mainland chinese, your Singapore let TOO many into your country. They are all family and friends of the beijing communists party. Of course they will committ financial crimes!!

[@sassy19a]

I think it is more like that they want to cast a wider net hence the lengthier period of investigative time spanned.

[@TubersAndPotatoes]

Also PRC nationals fleeing their country, there's not that many ways to legally transfer their assets overseas. Popular destinations like Vancouver, New Zealand, Australia are being flooded with all these monies buying up local real estate at exorbitant prices. Rising up housing/rent value for everyone else making them unaffordable.

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$

[@ondreiii]

These PRCs are ruining the local property markets globally! Even worse, those houses are empty all the times whereas locals were struggling to put a roof over their heads as they are priced out!

[@nhuphuong060688]

Oh, this is a very different theme from what Steven often investigates :)

[@vincecarlo]

Steve FOCUSES on PROPAGANDA 🐂💩

[@glen7k621]

How does a director of 186 firms not be in the spotlight and get away for such a long time??

[@matthewpeloso2172]

Because Singapore knows that it needs to launder money to make a profit.

[@ianpolo5673]

These are high class criminals who play around the loop holes in the system to make them look "clean".

[@MK-gn1nz]

Trillion dollars business that keep the island afloat

[@Krush0-0]

7:39 In a nutshell, if dirty monies flow in, clean funds won't.

[@mossad1438]

How they get so much money to launder, why no one is reporting on that ?

[@vincecarlo]

CPIB 😴😴😴

[@ongtayjoojames-ow1bs]

Yes...!!!, indeed...!!!☝️

[@thebestbees]

Lol property agents doing “ due diligence “

[@shaqisumari304]

I think it unspoken market that SG is the best place to cuci duit

[@tkyap2524]

Due diligence at the auction? How is payment made for the items? Can it also be a conduit for money laundering?

[@riennekoh3901]

Wow 152 properties in SG waiting to be auctioned - will the bid price be low or high😅

[@KuopassaTv]

Ordinary people will lose, that's the answer to all questions regarding money

[@misterfengtau]

My impression is that nothing much is done unless information becomes publicly available (i.e, the breaking of the 1MBD scandal). I had cause to try to source information about a Singaporean private company online and had no success. I wanted to find out who the directors and shareholders were and location of the registered office. The company was involved in internet fraud using Facebook.

[@maxari88]

Very interesting 🤔

[@afandidarmanegara609]

No one is checking the property agent, so there is "lobang" lar.

[@daddyraffles7083]

Luxury tax for transaction of luxury items can fast to detect individual purchase and recorded

[@Krush0-0]

9:01 Sellng to high net worth PRC? According to the Chinese law, each person is only allow to wire US$50,000 per annuum. Having said that, big monies are moved illegitimately out of China e.g. through underground bankers in Macau. Isn't this controversial? The unreasonably tight laws in China make everthing appear illegal and their authority are enforcing it internationally.

[@monster88]

Until the culprit accumulated so much wealth only the authority discovered. Mean Singapore system still got many loop holes. I would suggest penalized the respective parties who was involved with the respective back dated high value properties transactions.

[@pangpang7202]

Knowing it and getting the evidence to catch the culprit is 2 different things. Every systems there would be loop holes to be explored. This is because it involved many countries.

[@allena3430]

Innocent till proven guilty so you can't catch laundering parties just because they might have brought in illegal money. A lot of investigations, matter of when they get caught not if they are caught

[@ilovesugarbun]

You want to seize 100K or wait longer to seize 500billions?

[@Factively]

This case if can hush hush gov would. But it wasn’t possible because HK authorities reported it publicly and released to their own media so SG Gov had no choice but to take actions.

[@howeichin4103]

just wondering if it is possible to do stringent background checks before such "money" enters our system?

[@kwangc6720]

With Singapore being such a tiny country and having well-known stringent laws, I find it extremely hard to believe the government and authorities did not know about such scams taking place for so long. Do you mean they totally didn't do any background checks when the money launderer bought 10 premium condos costing like S$60-$80 million at one go? Or if someone purchases a GCB for $60 million and above it's ok? No further checks need be done? Don't kid me. The authorities must have admitted tons of super wealthy people to this country that all of them could enter through the cracks. It gives me the feeling that as long as one has lots of money, despite doing something illegal, the ability to breeze through the law is easy. Remember that China Chinese tour guide who scammed an old wealthy woman with dementia? How did he get his PR so easily? He attached himself to her and the authorities foolishly thought he was really rich. Hence, the PR approval. The SG government are not doing their job properly. The consequences can be felt immediately. Now I know why prices of private as well as public properties have been soaring so quickly. It's because of all these rich people they have admitted over the years. As a Singaporean, I feel frustrated to realise that some of them turned out to be scammers. ☹

[@Professor-1986]

In reality, you can suspect but to arrest someone you need a hard evidence to prove one is violating and scamming. That is possible in China PRC government, the government could just arrest whatever they think you are, that’s why you can see the rich could disappear overnight. Singapore still maintains the freedom and yet regulated. It requires time to collect the evidence. People like you are so smart to find a loop hole although it’s suspicious. Please do not assume like what you are watching TVB, KDRAMA, that it takes 16 episodes to take an badass down lol 😅. It was not the case in reality.

[@tjahjadi659]

If on paper Swee Swee got the black and white in order, enough riaoz

[@matthewpeloso2172]

Of course. Singapore knows that this is easy money and it's banking sector has been set up to make a good profit from money laundering.

[@thomastan7511]

Keep it up.

[@wumao6797]

Am curious. What does the Singapore government do with the confiscated money and assets of those criminals?🤔

[@ron.em7696]

19:29 I believe the photo shows a collection of Macallan whisky....

[@caver38]

And new cases continue to be exposed , even one of the worlds biggest criminals has been found living in Singapore for some time

[@BrandonSKW]

Now when i see people driving nice cars like Rolls Royce in Singapore i will question myself are they in money laundering...

[@matthewpeloso2172]

If you work in banking sector of Singapore then, yes, you are.

[@mypandabear50344]

MAS chief not accountable? ... 1MDB, now Fujian gang... Have to wait for 10 more cases?

[@matthewpeloso2172]

In some cultures it's called prosperity.

[@rajahua6268]

I used to have Kleemaid washer, but after 10 years the motor is too expensive to replace. Going to miss it😅

[@Abraham-uk4xy]

If the MAS was vigilant i wonder how this vould happen. If it was true this is a case linked to a VVIP family i hope there will be transparency. Otherwise they are arrested and we hear nothing more after that.

[@HenryKing679]

And those doing the money laudering will be watching this Documentary with a big smile,coz this video just shows them how the authority tracks them down and catches them. Now all they will do now is learn from it and improve their tactics for defeat the authority and be one step ahead of them.

[@meganyeen6986]

:( true

[@KK-kn3sn]

RM one sentence ‘My client is paying your salary’ can KO KYC department . But I feel this $2 b case the water is very very deep let see how deep can our government dig. 😂

[@beezlebub9]

They are so not motivated to dig

[@pyt6631]

Dig too deep later can resurface or not

[@thecowegg]

Is how deep they “want” to dig. Don’t want to step on the big boys as well 😅

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$ world's best place to money launder whoop whoop

[@KK-kn3sn]

Yes yes how deep they want to dig also 😂 maybe cannot handle the ultimate big fish later

[@TheRizzIsOn5938]

When you wanted to become an investigator but life makes you a journalist 🗿

[@5kplamse]

many many more cases lah, just never dig up only. what about the proceeds from the Golden Triangle ? Since SG ban Russia then why not ban the bank accounts of all those Myanmar generals ?

[@theracer6882]

Canada should use some of these techniques to reduce money laundering in the country

[@ReQleq]

Still leaves more questions than answers

[@lambertois11]

Singapore made great economic progress from 1965 to 2019. But the economic model, who created this great economic progress, is now obsolete. Singapore profited greatly from the waves of Chinese tourists from the mainland. In 2018, I spent one month in Australia. On my way back to Canada, I stopped in Singapore. I was shocked by the huge number of luxury shops with lines of Chinese waiting outside to come in! The COVID pandemic put an end to this influx of money from China. Singapore is a divided society, with 20% ultra-wealthy and 80% not-so-wealthy people. There is a housing crisis: not enough affordable housing and rampant housing speculation. In the past months, Singapore has been rocked by cases of ministerial corruption, and money laundering! There is something wrong in the state of Singapore !

[@jansg405]

You should tell this to the voters who support the whiter than white party

[@john99922]

Hdb goes above millions now..interesting

[@chaemcho1203]

A crash and bullish market provides equal high-yield potential, it's all about information and strategy application, l've seen folks make huge 7figure profit in a crashing market and pullit off much easily in a bull market Unequivocally the crash/recession is getting somebody somewhere rich.

[@SuperFly-xc9ed]

I will advice you stop trading on your own if you keep losing, if you can, then get a professional to trade for you, I think that way your assets are more secured.

[@kendrawolford2678]

The number one skillset that an investor need to have is extreme patience and invest with a professional broker to guide you!

[@andropovandromeda3322]

Buy low and sell high, also ensure you invest with a professional who has a unique skill in manipulating the market for profit gain. GOODLUCK!!!

[@HarmonyGodson]

I have one question, everytime I buy low and sell high I should be making more money right? But my wallet becomes less and less, why is this?

[@johnmilestone6211]

I'm a beginner. I don't understand indicators that are used. Any guide or advice you wanna give me?? How to read indicators properly??

[@roninskylines]

its quite bs, when the suspects had 100+ properties…which are easily suspicious and can be checked.

[@firefly4326]

The pricing of the economy suffers with these dirty monies. Housing properties prices are jacked up hence

[@ShortWatchMovies]

Its indeed not a new things in Singapore. there is a lot dirty money from Indonesia pouring into singapore. All that come from corruption.

[@kenrock2]

My question is what about fake items, non consumable of course. Will they be sold or be destroyed?

[@damnfreakingsien]

“You can purchased seized assets at auctions.” Plot twist: another money launderer is buying those seized assets.

[@lilianteo3229]

This is probably the only best sense to explain "sensible dictatorship" for Singapore 😂😂😂

[@TheLearningMastery]

The COO David Lim in the most famous case in An Xing scammed me earlier and made me look like the criminal he stole cheques, SMS credits

[@clementihammock7572]

How about Taiwan President Chen Shui Bian? His money had also been transferred in and out Singapore Banking Systems before he got caught. Also Morgan Stanley Economists Andy Xie in-house memo incident let him booted out. 😂

[@sashamoore9691]

How abt xi jinxing 😂

[@sarabeth8050]

If you eliminate dirty money in Singapore, the economy would collapse.

[@hearhere2165]

@@natico-w812 - a lot - that's why Singapore offer laundering services. But USA is #1 by far.

[@lastChang]

Singapore 🇸🇬 should be more worried about China in the SCS than the Hamas-Israel conflict. - The $2B Chinese money laundering case was another example.

[@eddyevodius]

Where's the 1st chang?

[@natico-w812]

money laundering hub $$$$ world's best place to money launder whoop whoop

[@dutchmilk]

Ah there you are again, racist.

[@aplacecalltambun]

IMF has a set of rules for country tackling money washing which I believe countries should follow. Also IMF is the world body responsible. You folks have a just elected president who was once the Chairman of IMF.

[@asyongmatipid2]

If a trust bought the property a trustee who initiated the transaction doesn't necessarily need to be related to the beneficiary. Looks like this is one of the major reasons why Western countries are having a housing affordability crisis.

[@hatchegg80]

the comments section raises more relevant questions than the documentary, CNA being a mouthpiece, gain

[@Changemustcome171]

PM Lee’s conflation of marital infidelity to corruption is a clever sleight of hand. He equated all of the PAP’s scandals - the Ridout Road conflict of interest, Iswaran’s alleged graft and Tan’s marital infidelity - with the Workers’ Party’s one scandal - an episode of marital infidelity that ended years ago. If Lee was already aware of Tan’s affair in 2020, why did he wait until February 2023 to have a ‘hard conversation’ with him?

[@kwangc6720]

I'm sure he knew about Iswaran's case as well. He didn't have a choice on that as reportedly, news broke out at the UK side. LHL must have known about the Keppel corruption as well. Even my friend who worked in that case already knew there was some fishy corruption going on with the deal. They could not report it at all. Welcome to Singapore, a legally corrupt country.

[@iamavaenergy]

That's a really good question. It does seem strange that he waited so long to have a conversation with Tan about his infidelity. I'm not sure why he waited, but it does make me wonder if there was something else going on behind the scenes.

[@xXDeathwlngXx]

It still doesnt explain how it affects me..?

[@Krush0-0]

I wonder where these seized monies go to? MOF?

[@UltraVioletMilk]

Who let them use the laundrymats in the first place? Don't pretend lah. Never arrest the laundromat operator?

[@xtreame]

should interview that kelvin who decked himself out in "celine" clothings and AP watches

[@marsilladewibaruch7097]

Why chose Singapore? Obviously it is a tax haven with no scruple of accepting dirty money. The one and only matters is money pouring into the the city state to keep the status as financial hub. The legitimacy is secondary!

[@natico-w812]

status ? it is a money laundering "hub" $$$$ that aligns itself with the West, think ownself superior in Asia, if so western wannabe just move the whole island to Europe!

[@wickedhero3764]

at least in SG they caught him, meanwhile in Indonesia the money launderer will be lobbying the politician to support them

[@bushrasharafuddheen9836]

The Tour was arranged by Fortune Tours and Travels in Kochi(Cochin) City, Kerala State, Republic of India

[@songkok7hitam]

How much money got siphoned from the 1MDB case until the Singapore authorities did actually intervene. If its enrich the Singaporean, then its ok as far as they were concerned.

[@sinalbertckwong6406]

....one near foolproof anti-scam action is for the govt is to adopt and inform the public that all cool call from all govt agencies MUST BE FROM LAND LINE. The logic is why would the public servants of govt agencies MAKE OFFICIAL ADM/EFFORTMENT CALL from hand phone???

[@kaysoar]

Hey cna, the ic and dob wasn’t blurred out properly …

[@Banayaga]

11:50 english subtitles translate "over a thousand" to "over a th000" lol

[@ramliibrahim6193]

Zero corruption? Really? Let’s get real.

[@cuteaquarium8456]

What if bad guys are ones buying back the acution items it means gov is rendering assistance to wash dirty money

[@tintintin534]

this is a good lesson to the gahmen to scrutinise the foreigners who could invest heavily in Singapore like buying houses. and please don't give out PR and citizenship freely anymore

[@thisandthatguy1156]

So who gets the money from the auctions? Authorities? Someone's pocket?

[@PassionPno]

The country’s reserve.

[@dennistan4663]

As long as you are not involved, let the authority department do their job after all they are drawing salary.

[@malita354]

I worry the past SG gdp that escaped recession (consecutive 2 quarters of negative) was helped by Dirty Money washed in the mighty singapura😅

[@kcw3733]

Tip of the ice berg.

[@RL-wf7dx]

Money laundering is hard to fight.. with AI, it’s even more tougher. Honestly we can only do so much.

[@BrandonSKW]

I bet they inside people in local banks to help them then one day a whistleblower reported them.

[@EmceeJoseph]

A bit uncomfortable with the deep fingerprinting done by this "tech provider". Also the flags such as "Android emulator" and "More than two consecutive users" can easily raise false positives. Important to have a light touch with these operations. Also worth noting that "smurfing" has meanings outside financial forensics, as in video games it refers to a high-skilled player playing on an alternate account with a lower skill-rating. In general it can be taken to mean "making oneself appear smaller than they really are".

[@megabyte14]

Aric is good at acting blur lol

[@ShadowRap-y5l]

Just imagine how many others all these years

[@bumblebear75]

hahahaha you want to trust a real estate broker who is on commission to 'verify' the source of the money he is going to get paid from? in which fantasy world would this work ...

[@Sirius-me5zy]

Happens everyday,

[@allexiour3131]

If you watched breaking bad... then you already know what money laundering is

[@mrtienphysics666]

The money launderes all don't live in hdb, it is really irrelevant to most people but the very rich.

[@PrasannaOgaleSG]

It is not irrelevant. When the push up prices of Condo's, pay unreasonable rent for offices or homes, pay silly amounts for watches and luxury bags that has an effect on everything else. Prices of everything goes up in tandem.

[@kelvinfok]

Dear CNA, it’s good to educate the public but why are you revealing your detection strategies to potential money launderers? This is akin to a quant hedge fund revealing its trading strategies or SG Govt revealing the exact criteria for citizenship.

[@LonganLee]

Swiss standard means actually what ah?😅

[@xtreame]

Casino got more please

[@jrukawa11]

Is waran involved or not?

[@siongteck8371]

So is FTX case deemed as another category of money laundering scam?

[@keytiax1128]

Because behind have Singaporean people support

[@ShahWirana-bq9hv]

I have met far wiser vagabond monks living ascetically in rural areas who are better human beings than the shallow urban dwellers who are materialistically jet setting but spiritually lacking in finesse and form.

[@dennistan4663]

If its dirty money, wash it. 😅😅

[@robinfok4877]

JFC what is with this Steve Chia? He could have asked serious probing questions of the conduct of Real Estate and banking professionals, but he decides to turn it into this inane luxury lifestyle piece about the illicit goods.

[@jimtang7087]

The e.g. where Huttons demonstrated AML check of their clients. the guy said they check for Politically Exposed Persons and US Sanctions list. If only these 2 sources were being checked, it explains and infer we may have much more to dig 😂

[@yunital391]

Ya more important check is aml world check name hits, adverse news name check, STR name list etc..

[@dargekko5041]

Do not get caught with the USA game to destroy other countries, such as Swiss economy by come up with a game that will make banking is not comfortable experience for anyone anymore. Singapore economy is a perfect target to destroy with this scheme. Money inherently needs some privacy.

[@sparkmajorpain]

but this money is not government money . why government will sequestered this.

[@Sirius-me5zy]

Go do a investigation on PAP

[@LD-yq7cl]

wow the so called wine expert cannot even open a bottle without leaving some crook, sorry, cork...

[@J.Deaconu]

First comment, I love Singapore ❤️ I felt at home!

[@tanchewhoe3566]

Inflation! Inflation! Inflation! COE price up!