SU Wenqiang, one of the 10 foreign nationals embroiled in the over S$3 billion money laundering case, was sentenced to 13 months’ jail on Tuesday (Apr 2), the first of the group to be handed a jail term.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of money laundering involving assets of more than S$500,000. Another nine charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

In his judgment, Senior District Judge Ong Hian Sun sentenced Su to 13 months’ jail for the first charge of possessing S$601,706 in cash, which were proceeds from operating an unlawful remote gambling service in the Philippines. For the second charge, where Su paid S$500,000 for a Mercedes-Benz using criminal proceeds, he was sentenced to a jail term of 12 months. 

Both sentences are to run concurrently and were backdated to Aug 15, 2023, when he was arrested in an islandwide anti-money laundering blitz.

Su, a Cambodian passport holder, faced a total of 11 charges – eight money laundering charges involving nearly S$1.6 million, as well as three charges related to possessing a forged document and falsely applying for work passes from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

In court on Tuesday, Judge Ong agreed with Deputy Public Prosecutor Edwin Soh that general deterrence should be the predominating sentencing principle for the case, which is part of the “largest money-laundering case” in Singapore.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

The prosecution sought a 12 to 15-month jail term, taking into consideration Su’s guilty plea and willingness to forfeit his seized assets worth over S$5.9 million to the state.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Teo said Su was involved with an illegal remote gambling operation in 2019 based in the Philippines, which ran a website for people in China to participate in gambling activities. Online gambling is illegal in China.

In particular, he helped to maintain the website, set up by an unknown individual from Taiwan, which punters from China could access through their mobile phones. He therefore facilitated the participation of others in remote gambling through a service that is unlicensed and unlawful in China, she said.

“By his actions, the accused also conducted a betting operation by managing, with others, the accepting of bets by remote communication. The said betting operation is unlicensed in Singapore,” said DPP Teo.

She noted that Su took home a share of the profits the gambling syndicate made every month. In 2021, he and his wife moved to Singapore, but Su continued his involvement with the operation and frequently flew to the Philippines for work.

In 2023, Su contacted a person, known only as B, to ask for his share of the profit, as B managed the finances of the gambling operation.

In June that year, Su travelled to B’s home and received S$1 million in cash, which he stored in a safe in his home.

The S$601,706 in cash the police found during the August raid on Su’s home was part of the S$1 million Su received, and directly represented his benefits from criminal conduct.

Su also received his share of the proceeds from the gambling operation through bank transfers. The prosecution highlighted that between Sep 9 and Sep 20, 2021, Su received nearly S$5 million in a Citibank account, which was his share of the criminal proceeds from the remote gambling business.

Around Jan 28, 2022, he withdrew S$502,431 in cash from the account and used this cash to purchase a Mercedes Benz AMG C63S, said DPP Teo. “This S$502,431 in cash therefore, in whole, directly represented the accused’s benefits from criminal conduct,” she said.

In DPP Soh’s submissions, he said that a “suitably lengthy custodial sentence” must be meted out in this case to give effect to the principle of general deterrence.

He highlighted a point made by Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo in a ministerial statement about the S$3 billion money laundering case, noting that criminals will try to exploit the economic openness of Singapore to launder their illicit funds and create the appearance of legitimacy.

There is therefore “a pressing need” to deter money laundering offences and stem its prevalence to maintain Singapore’s reputation as a legitimate financial hub, he noted.

Meanwhile, Su’s lawyers, Gabriel Law Corp’s Manoj Nandwani and Sameer Amir Melber, argued for a 10 to 11-month sentence.

They noted that while Su’s conduct was criminal in nature, the activities were not targeted at Singapore, and did not concern victims in Singapore. In addition, he was willing to forfeit his seized assets, which would leave him with nothing.

In sentencing, Judge Ong noted that the 13 months’ jail term for the first charge and 12 for the second took into consideration Su’s guilty plea and cooperation with authorities, as well as the “totality of the circumstances”.

Property rental with criminal proceeds, attempts to obtain work passes

After the initial two charges in August, Su was handed seven more charges in January this year, including six related to using around S$476,700 in criminal proceeds to purchase luxury goods, jewellery and alcohol, as well as to pay the rent of an apartment at condominium Orchard By-The-Park, and the rent and deposit of a landed house on Lewis Road in Bukit Timah.

The remaining three charges were related to him possessing a forged document and attempting to cheat MOM. A charge Su received in January stated he forged a Chinese marriage certificate stating he had married one Su Yanping in China in May 2018, when no such marriage registration was made.

The charge sheet noted that the certificate was intended to be fraudulently used in a Dependant’s Pass application to MOM.

Su was also said to have applied for an Employment Pass in February 2022, and declared that he was hired as a sales director by Fleur Business Service, although he had no intention of being employed there.

The final charge stated he had engaged in a conspiracy in February 2022 with an individual known as “Wen Wen” to obtain a work pass for Su Yanping.

Su had purportedly instructed “Wen Wen” to apply for an Employment Pass on Su Yanping’s behalf and declare that she would be employed by Ju You Family Office, but she was not.

He is among nine men and one woman who were nabbed in an island-wide anti-money laundering blitz in August last year. The assets seized in the case have swelled to over S$3 billion, from S$1 billion at the time.

Among the 10 accused, two are expected to plead guilty – former No Signboard Holdings director Su Haijin will return to court on Apr 4, while Wang Baosen has a court mention fixed for Apr 16.