The $2bn dirty-money case that rocked Singapore
The scandal embroiled multiple banks, property agents, precious metal traders and a top golf club. It led to extensive raids in some of the most affluent neighbourhoods, where police seized billions in cash and assets.
A Singaporean court has begun handing out sentences in a sensational case, which saw 10 Chinese nationals charged for laundering $2.2bn (£1.8bn) earned from criminal activities abroad.
The scandal embroiled multiple banks, property agents, precious metal traders and a top golf club. It led to extensive raids in some of the most affluent neighbourhoods, where police seized billions in cash and assets. The lurid details have gripped Singaporeans - among the seized assets were 152 properties, 62 vehicles, shelves of luxury bags and watches, hundreds of pieces of jewellery and thousands of bottles of alcohol.
Earlier this month, Su Wenqiang and Su Haijin, became the first to be jailed in the case. Su Haijin, police said, jumped off the second-floor balcony of a house trying to flee arrest. Both men will serve a little over a year in prison, after which they will be deported and barred from returning to Singapore. Eight others are still awaiting the court's decision.
Even as it draws to a close, the case - the biggest of its kind in Singapore - has raised inevitable questions. The money that paid for their plush lives in the country, prosecutors said, came from illegal sources overseas, such as scams and online gambling.
How did these men, some of whom had multiple passports from Cambodia, Vanuatu, Cyprus and Dominica, live and bank in Singapore for years without drawing scrutiny? It has sparked a review of policies, with banks tightening rules, especially around clients who hold multiple passports.
Most important, the case has spotlighted the country's struggle with welcoming the super wealthy, without also becoming a destination for ill-gotten gains.
Show me the money
Singapore, which is often referred to as the Switzerland of Asia, started wooing banks and wealth managers in the 1990s. Economic reforms in China and India had begun to pay off, and then in the 2000s, a newly-stable Indonesia saw wealth grow as well. Soon, Singapore became a haven for foreign businesses, with investor-friendly laws, tax exemptions and other incentives.
Today, the ultra-rich can fly into Singapore's private jet terminal, live it up in luxurious quayside neighbourhoods, and speculate on the world's first diamond trading exchange. Just outside the airport is a maximum-security vault called Le Freeport that provides tax-free storage for fine art, jewels, wine and other valuables. The $100m-facility is often dubbed Asia's Fort Knox.
Singapore's asset managers drew S$435bn from abroad in 2022, almost double the figure in 2017, according to the country's market regulator. More than half of Asia's family offices - firms which manage private wealth - are now in Singapore, according to a report by consulting giant KPMG and family office consultancy Agreus.
They include those of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, British billionaire James Dyson and Chinese-Singaporean Shu Ping, boss of the world's biggest chain of hotpot restaurants, Haidilao.
Authorities say some of the accused in the money laundering case may be linked to family offices that were given tax incentives.
"There is an inherent contradiction for a place like Singapore, which prides itself on clean and good governance but also wants to accommodate the management of massive wealth by offering advantages such as low taxes and banking secrecy," says Chong Ja-Ian, a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China.
"The risk of also becoming a banker for individuals who earned their money through nefarious or illicit means grows."
