Billion-dollar money laundering case: Man who jumped off balcony gets 14 months' jail
Su Haijin is the second of 10 offenders arrested during police raids last August to be convicted.
SINGAPORE: A man who jumped off a balcony during a raid to arrest suspects related to Singapore's largest money laundering case was convicted and sentenced to 14 months' jail on Thursday (Apr 4), days after being handed more charges.
Cypriot national Su Haijin was the second of 10 offenders to be convicted, after the arrests were made during police raids last August. In total, more than S$3 billion (US$2.2 billion) in assets have been seized or frozen in relation to the case, likely making it one of the largest money laundering operations in the world. The first man to be convicted and sentenced is Su Wenqiang, who was jailed for 13 months' on Tuesday.
Su, 41, pleaded guilty to three out of 14 charges. These were for resisting lawful arrest and possessing around S$1.4 million in criminal proceeds through a shell company Yihao Cyber Technologies.
The remaining charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing. These include money laundering, helping others apply for or renew a work pass by making false statements to the controller of work passes, and conspiring with a Wang Junjie to use forged documents and make false representations to officials.
The court heard that on the day of the raids on Aug 15, a team of police officers arrived at Su's residence at 16 Ewart Park and identified themselves to his eldest son.
The son later led them to the bedroom, but the door was closed and locked. The son asked Su to come to the door, but Su did not do so. Instead he asked his son who the men with him were.
The team of officers identified themselves and asked Su to open the door, warning him that they would breach the door to enter. They did so eventually but could not find Su.
Investigations later revealed that Su had jumped from the second-floor balcony to the ground floor. He fractured both feet and injured his wrist, but managed to hobble down a flight of steps and escape through a side gate.
He hid in a drain where he was later found and arrested.
About S$170 million worth of assets consisting of cash, vehicles and luxury items were seized from Su.
Separately, Su was the director and sole shareholder of Yihao Cyber Technologies, whose business was listed as the development of software and applications.
Investigations showed that the company, incorporated on Jan 3, 2017, did not have legitimate operations in Singapore. Even though it had a registered address in the Marina area, Su only used the address to receive mail. The premises were occupied by another company.
Su used Yihao Cyber Technologies to open corporate bank accounts with OCBC, DBS and UOB.
Su was first issued with an employment pass by Ministry of Manpower for his role as a CEO of Yihao Cyber Technologies on Aug 29, 2017.
Investigations found that the revenue declared in the company's financial statements for the financial years (FY) 2019 to 2022 were fictitious. Between 2019 and 2022, Su conspired with Wang from LW Business Consultancy to prepare false documents, including financial statements and business agreements.
Yihao Cyber Technologies’ financial statement for FY2021 was submitted to banks DBS, UOB and OCBC and also used to obtain further renewals of Su's employment pass and other official purposes.
In 2021, the company received S$2,396,943.20 in its OCBC account from an overseas company involved in remote gambling operations. Su claimed the money was from providing IT, website maintenance or development services but there was no evidence to substantiate his claims.
Su later withdrew S$2,348,251.25 from this account and dissipated the sum into the DBS and UOB accounts.
By the time of his arrest, only around S$1.4 million was seized from the DBS and UOB accounts.
Assets seized from Su Haijin
Around S$170 million worth of assets was seized from Su. These consisted of:
21 bank accounts
- Containing about S$45.6 million
13 properties
- Two Beach Road apartments purchased for S$14.8 million
- Two Sentosa houses purchased for S$36.4 million
- Tanjong Pagar apartment purchased for S$6 million
- Three North Bridge Road shophouses purchased for S$10 million
- Two Grange Road apartments purchased for S$21.4 million
- Three Robertson Quay apartments purchased for S$6.2 million
Cars
- A black Toyota Corolla Altis sold for S$35,000
- A black Toyota Alphard sold for S$232,000
- A black Toyota Alphard sold for S$249,000
- A white Rolls Royce Dawn sold for S$780,000
- A blue Ferrari 488 Spider sold for S$718,000
- A white Rolls Royce Phantom sold for S$1.2 million
- A white Toyota Alphard Elegance sold for S$160,000
Country club memberships
- Sentosa Golf Club membership valued at S$480,000
- The Singapore Island Country Club valued at S$410,000
- Tanah Merah Country Club valued at S$190,000
Other items
- 50 bags, including brands such as Hermes and Chanel, worth about S$2.8 million
- 34 luxury watches worth around S$19 million
- 226 pieces jewellery with an undetermined value
- 36 pieces of gold and ornaments with an undetermined value
- Currencies worth about S$2.2 million
- 726 bottles of liquor, one box of Moutai and eight cartons of assorted liquor with an undetermined value
- 69 pieces of Bearbricks collectibles with an undetermined value
- S$499,176 in cash held in the Accountant-General's Department's bank account
PROSECUTION ARGUMENTS
The prosecution sought 12 to 15 months' jail for Su, citing multiple aggravating factors including the transnational nature of Su's offences, making it more difficult to detect.
"It is clear that the accused has engaged in an abuse of Singapore’s economic and social infrastructure," said the prosecution.
He laundered substantial amounts of funds through Yihao Cyber Technologies’ bank accounts and prepared false financial statements for the authorities to facilitate his continued stay in Singapore, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Ng Jean Ting, Eric Hu and R Arvindren.
Su also submitted false statements to financial institutions to enable access to banking facilities and lied to the authorities to help his wife and another individual keep their employment passes, the prosecution pointed out.
"The accused has abused Singapore’s infrastructure on multiple fronts," they said.
CLIENT A LOVING FAMILY MAN: DEFENCE
In mitigation, Su's lawyer Julian Tay stressed that his client had voluntarily surrendered around 90 per cent of his assets and cooperated with the authorities as a sign of his remorse.
Mr Tay, who argued for no more than 11 months' jail, opened the mitigation by saying that Su had been unfairly associated with the other individuals as if he were part of a "sinister cartel or syndicate" but that this was not the case.
In reality, his client was no different from any other loving family man, Mr Tay said.
Su was a devoted husband to his wife and a caring father to four children, the youngest being an infant.
"All the accused ever wanted was to make Singapore, this safe and stable city state, his home when he relocated his whole family here some seven years ago in 2017," Mr Tay told the court.
Su had "big plans" which came crashing down when he was arrested.
In total, Su had voluntarily surrendered more than S$165 million to the state, the "largest scale in living memory".
"So when the accused says he is remorseful, he is not paying lip service, he is literally walking the talk and making a public display of penitence the like of which is unprecedented."
Despite being seriously injured during his escape, Su cooperated with investigations, answering questions even while experiencing "excruciating pain" from his fracture and even while running a fever after a surgery to repair his fractures, Mr Tay said.
The lawyer also noted that his client had made contributions to Singapore by donating to charity, even though some have since returned his funds.
Mr Tay said that Su had met Wang in the course of relocating to Singapore. He trusted Wang to be familiar with the processes for foreigners doing business in Singapore.
Yihao Cyber Technologies was set up by Su with a view to be operated as an IT company based in Singapore to complement Su's businesses abroad, unfortunately these plans were shelved in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The penalties for resisting arrest are a jail term of up to a year, a fine, or both.
For possessing property reasonably suspected of being the benefits of criminal conduct and failing to account satisfactorily how they came by this property, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$150,000, or both.