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NEWS: Singapore PM tells FATF delegates country faces increased ML risk and will prioritize asset recovery
By AML Intelligence Correspondent
SINGAPORE faces greater risks of money laundering and terrorist financing than other countries because it is an international financial and business centre, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told FATF delegates today (Wednesday).
“But we are determined to do whatever is necessary to respond to these risks and safeguard Singapore’s reputation as a trusted financial center,” Wong, who is also Singapore’s finance minister, said at the Financial Action Task Force’s plenary week.
He used the conference to publish the city-state’s national asset recovery strategy report as part of its efforts to enhance its anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing framework.
“Asset recovery is one of the main priorities of our AML regime,” the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank said in the 32-page report.
“We seek to deprive criminals of their ill-gotten gains, thereby eliminating the financial incentive to launder their money in Singapore,” they said in the report.
“We also seek to provide resources to victims of crime, helping them recover property and assets lost to criminal activity,” they added.
Between January 2019 and June 2024, Singapore seized 6 billion Singapore dollars ($4.4 billion) linked to criminal and money laundering activities, according to the report.
Of that amount, 416 million Singapore dollars were returned to victims and 1 billion Singapore dollars were confiscated from the State, the report states, while most of the remainder is linked to ongoing investigations or legal proceedings.
Last week, Singapore highlighted in a risk assessment report that its banking sector, including wealth management, posed the biggest money laundering risk in the city-state.
Singapore busted a $2.24 billion money laundering ring run by foreigners last year, with the last of 10 offenders being sentenced on June 10. The suspects had money in Singapore bank accounts and converted some of it into property, cars, handbags and jewelry.
With its status as an international financial center, tax-friendly regime and seen as politically stable, Singapore has long been a haven for ultra-wealthy foreigners.
It has seen a new influx of wealth since 2021 after becoming one of the first Asian cities to significantly ease pandemic restrictions.
The number of family offices or sole management firms that manage the portfolios of the wealthy in the city-state rose to about 1,400 last year, from 1,100 the year before and about 700 at the end of 2021, according to government statistics.
According to the report released today by the PM, money laundering activities are increasingly sophisticated, involving rapid movements of large sums of illicit funds between jurisdictions and affecting a significant number of victims.
“Specific to Singapore, a considerable proportion of money laundering cases here are transnational in nature, involving foreign predicate crimes and foreign criminal syndicates that employ sophisticated and complex methods, including layering tactics and digital technologies, to conceal the cross-border movement of their illicit funds”, he says.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Asset recovery is one of the main pillars of Singapore’s AML regime. It seeks to prevent the flow of illicit assets through Singapore’s financial ecosystem, while continuing to welcome legitimate businesses. Between January 2019 and June 2024, Singapore seized 6 billion Singapore dollars linked to criminal and money laundering activities – of which 416 million Singapore dollars were returned to victims and 1 billion Singapore dollars were confiscated from the State. Most of the remainder is linked to ongoing investigations or legal proceedings.
- Successful asset recovery requires a multifaceted approach. To this end, Singapore’s National Asset Recovery Strategy focuses on four pillars, namely:
- To detect suspicious and criminal activities through the location of illicit funds;
- Deprive criminals from their illicit proceeds through immediate seizure and confiscation;
- Deliver maximum recovery of assets for confiscation and restitution to victims; and
- Detain criminals from using Singapore to hide, move or enjoy their illicit assets.
- Singapore implements these four pillars through upstream loss prevention efforts and a whole-of-society approach. We have strengthened partnerships with our international counterparts and with community and private sector stakeholders in asset recovery and loss prevention efforts. For example, the Singapore Police Force’s Anti-Fraud Command and local banks sent over 16,700 SMS alerts from March to April 2024 to alert over 12,500 bank customers who authorities detected were engaged in fraud. This resulted in the disruption of over 3,000 frauds and prevented losses of over S$100 million.
- Singapore recognises that criminal activities and methods are constantly evolving. We are committed to continually improving our AML/CFT regime to prevent criminals from exploiting Singapore’s ecosystem. Where we detect any abuse by criminals, we will track them down and take action, including depriving them of their illicit assets. The National Asset Recovery Strategy is available for download here.
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