Recently, a Korean was arrested by the police and charged with fraud and money laundering after being arrested by the police on suspicion of smuggling gold bars out of Singapore with illegal gains. According to the case, Mr. K's involvement exceeded S$1.5 billion, which is more than the sum of the 10 defendants in the largest money laundering case in Singapore's history!
Between 2014 and 2017, Mr. K received more than S $1.5 billion in black money from South Korea to Japan. Naturally, these black money cannot be remitted to Singapore through normal channels, but by sea, falsely claiming that the imports are various goods and tools, and the money is "mixed" in without anyone noticing.
After getting the money in, Mr. K used the black money to buy gold bars.
In late 2014, Mr. K received more than S $31 million from South Korea in this way, and then used the money to buy 628 gold bars.
Buying the gold bars is just the first step, and Mr. K will have to ship the gold bars out of Singapore.
In order to conceal the situation, Mr. K deceived the logistics company when arranging the shipment, saying that he was going to ship a batch of pneumatic tools out of Singapore, but in fact, there were about 600 gold bars hidden inside.
When applying to the customs for approval, Mr. K also hid the gold bars in the items, so as to successfully get the export documents.
Mr. K's first "gold bullion smuggling scheme" succeeded in this way, he bought nearly 28,000 gold bars in the same way between 2014 and 2017, and then shipped the gold bars illegally to South Korea and Japan.
Mr K's purchases were all 1kg gold bars, which at the time (2014 to 2017) cost between S $49,000 and S $58,000 each, and the total amount involved was more than S $1.5 billion.
The combined assets of the 10 defendants in Singapore's $3 billion money laundering case are about S $1 billion, only two-thirds of that of Mr. K.
In December last year, Mr. K reported to the Singapore Customs that he wanted to ship a batch of shower supplies to Japan, but he was found to have 15 gold bars hidden inside.
The Customs immediately reported the matter to the police, who immediately arrested Mr. K, and after a detailed investigation, Mr. K was charged in court on August 23.
Mr K faces a total of 21 charges, including 13 counts of fraud, four counts of money laundering and four counts of undeclared possession of more than S $20,000.
Money laundering offences in Singapore are punishable by up to 10 years' jail, a fine of S $500,000 or both; For fraud, the maximum penalty is three years in prison, a fine or both; Bringing more than S $20,000 into the country without declaring to the authorities is punishable by a jail term of not more than three years, a fine of not more than S $50,000 or both.
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Huang Bo
