A SECOND application to the High Court for bail by one of the accused in the S$2.8 billion money laundering case was dismissed on Thursday (Oct 12).

Justice Vincent Hoong said he did not find anything palpably wrong in the order made by District Judge Brenda Tan on Sep 29 to deny bail to Turkish national Vang Shuiming.

Also known as Wang Shuiming, Vang is the only one of the 10 foreign nationals embroiled in the case to appeal for bail through a High Court criminal revision. A previous application on Sep 5 was also dismissed by Justice Hoong.

In his judgment, Justice Hoong reminded the applicant that while he still has the option to seek another bail review or file further applications to the High Court, he has to ensure that there are proper grounds to support his application.

“Once an application for bail has been rejected, the court would be extremely reluctant to grant bail where subsequent applications are filed to the same court, unless there has been a material change in circumstances or new facts have since come to light,” he noted.

In court, Vang’s counsel, Wendell Wong of Drew & Napier, argued that the order for no bail on Sep 29 was erroneous, as the court had not sufficiently weighed the evidence before it.

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While the court does not need to apply the strict rules of evidence when reviewing bail, it also should not merely accept “bare assertions” by the prosecution as true, he said.

However, the prosecution submitted that Judge Tan had correctly applied the balancing test in bail proceedings and that the defence had “misapprehended the standard of proof required at bail proceedings”. It noted that it has been well established that the court does not have to undertake a rigorous fact-finding process at this time.

The prosecution said that the court had found Vang to be a flight risk, due to his substantial overseas wealth of S$35.5 million and multiple passports.

Vang’s passports from Turkey, China and Vanuatu have been seized by the police, while his Cambodian passport has not been found.

There was also a possibility of Vang colluding with witnesses or other interested persons, which could lead to the contamination of evidence.

Vang and his brother, Wang Shuiting, are both wanted by Chinese authorities for illegal online gambling activities.

To mitigate these risks, Wong said, Vang could be released on bail with conditions to ensure his attendance in court. Some measures suggested included electronic tagging and 24-hour camera surveillance.

The accused was also willing to surrender all his passports, as well as those of his family members, and be placed on the Immigration and Checkpoint Authority’s watch list, as further conditions for bail.

Deputy Public Prosecutor David Koh replied that their willingness to surrender all passports was “meaningless” as it was not possible for the police to determine how many passports Vang and his family had, and if they had surrendered them all.

It was also possible for Vang to obtain more passports by making financial contributions to other countries, such as his plan to procure one from Saint Kitts and Nevis. He could also leave the country via illegal means.

Vang faces four charges related to money laundering, and one forgery charge. The latter alleges that he submitted a forged China Merchant Bank statement to Citibank Singapore in 2021.

He was also found to have donated S$30,000 to Rainbow Centre, a special education school operator, sometime between 2020 and 2023. Two other accused in the case, Su Haijin and Zhang Ruijin, donated S$25,350 and S$17,100 respectively in the same period.

Vang will be back in court on Oct 27 for a pre-trial conference.