Two property agents fined for due diligence lapses in S$3 billion money laundering case 

[SINGAPORE] The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) has fined two property agents for their failure to conduct customer due diligence (CDD) measures on clients who were connected to the S$3 billion money laundering case.

On Tuesday (Jul 1), CEA said: “Both agents had failed to properly conduct CDD measures, which are important and necessary in the fight against money laundering in the real estate agency industry.”

In January 2022, real estate agent Tiew Chin Nee was engaged by an unnamed client to source for an industrial property.

She facilitated the purchase of the industrial property for the client in the same month, and subsequently helped the client to get the property rented out.

Before facilitating the purchase and rental transactions, Tiew failed to screen the client against the list of designated individuals and entities under the Terrorism (Suppression of Financing) Act 2002, and other relevant UN Sanctions lists, CEA said.

She also failed to assess the risk of the client engaging in money laundering or financing of terrorism, and to document the checks required for the rental transaction. 

For these lapses, she was issued a letter of censure with the maximum financial penalty of S$5,000 for breaching Section 44B(2)(a) of the Estate Agents Act 2010.

Tiew was an agent with PropNex at the time of the transaction. 

Eddie Lim, PropNex’s chief agency officer, said in response to queries from The Business Times (BT): “We have been actively cooperating with CEA on this matter since January 2024, responding to all their queries and furnishing relevant documents.

“As Singapore’s largest real estate agency, we remain committed to upholding the highest standards of professionalism and compliance, and to safeguarding the integrity of the industry.”

Justin Quek, deputy group chief executive officer of Realion, which was formed through the merger of OrangeTee and ETC, said that Tiew officially joined OrangeTee & Tie in January 2023. 

Quek added: “We were made aware of the incident only in June 2025, through CEA.” 

OrangeTee & Tie promptly initiated an internal review to ensure continued alignment with the company’s compliance standards.

Quek said: “As part of this review, we held a one-on-one session with Tiew to reinforce our company’s expectations and her obligations regarding anti-money laundering and customer due diligence protocols.

“We also used the opportunity to share this case as a learning point with all our agents through internal communications and our monthly in-person sales focus meetings.”

Zhu Zhengxin, another real estate agent, was also issued a letter of censure with a financial penalty of S$2,000 for failing to conduct CDD measures with due care, which was in breach of the CEA Code of Ethics.

In September 2020, he represented a local company in the purchase of a commercial property.

The beneficial owner of the company was later convicted of money laundering and forgery charges.

He had approached Zhu to purchase the multi-million-dollar commercial property for investment and had incorporated the company for the purposes of the purchase.

Zhu completed the customer’s particulars form and due diligence checklist for the local company, but failed to obtain a written acknowledgement, in the form of the signature and company stamp of an authorised signatory, to confirm the accuracy of the identifying information.

Also, when submitting this documentation to his estate agent, Zhu indicated on the CDD checklist that he had obtained the above written acknowledgement, even though he had not.

Zhu did not renew his registration to continue as a salesperson with Huttons, the agency said. 

Mark Yip, chief executive officer of Huttons Asia, said: “We remind our agents consistently of the need to conduct due diligence. Huttons does not accept transactions without a proper AML check on customers.” 

BT has reached out to CEA for further details on the transactions involved.

In its statement, CEA said that it is currently investigating other property agents who facilitated transactions of properties connected to the 2023 money laundering case, and will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those found to have committed breaches or offences.

Those who fail to comply with the Estate Agents Act may face disciplinary action by a disciplinary committee. This includes financial penalties or the revocation or suspension of the estate agent’s licence and the salesperson’s registration or both.

On Apr 8, the new Anti-Money Laundering and Other Matters (Estate Agents and Developers) Bill was passed in Parliament to strengthen the existing penalty frameworks for money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing.

Under the revised financial penalties, the maximum financial penalties are prescribed on a “per contravention” basis for such breaches, rather than on a “per case” basis. 

This means that errant agents may face financial penalties of up to S$5,000 for each breach, and up to S$200,000 and S$100,000 for each breach for agencies and salespersons, respectively, for cases brought before CEA’s disciplinary committee.