After a big dirty money scandal damaged its impeccable reputation last year, affluent city-state Singapore announced on Wednesday that it had confiscated S$6 billion ($4.4 billion) linked to crime and money laundering since 2019.
In the course of one of the biggest money laundering cases in the world, worth S$3 billion, Singapore carried out various raids last year that led to the seizure of luxury goods, vehicles, and real estate in addition to the arrest of multiple foreign nationals.
“As an international financial and business hub, we recognise that we face greater money laundering and terrorism financing risks,” Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said Wednesday at an event hosted by the Financial Action Task Force, a global financial crime association.
“But we are determined to do what is needed to respond to these risks and safeguard Singapore’s reputation as a trusted financial centre.”
According to the research, which was made public as part of the Southeast Asian country’s attempts to halt the flow of illicit funds, foreign crime syndicates using cutting-edge techniques were implicated in numerous cases in Singapore.
According to the article, of the S$6 billion that was confiscated, roughly S$416 million has been refunded to the victims and S$1 billion has been forfeited to the state.
It further stated that the majority of the remaining funds were the subject of current legal processes or investigations.
As stated by financial officials last week, wealth management and the banking industry were “assessed to pose the highest money laundering risks to Singapore”.
They added that banks were “more easily exploited by criminals due to their role in facilitating large volumes of transactions in the financial system and servicing customers with higher money laundering risks”.
