Prosecution seeks longest jail term so far for 9th offender in S$3 billion money laundering case

SINGAPORE: The prosecution is seeking a sentence of 17 to 18 months' jail for Su Jianfeng, the longest term sought so far for an accused person in the S$3 billion money laundering probe that showed criminals with roots in China converting their illegal overseas gains to luxury properties and goods in Singapore.

Su, 36, is listed as a Vanuatu national in court documents but was born in Fujian, China, according to his seized passports.

He pleaded guilty to one charge each of possessing S$550,903 in criminal benefits and fraudulently using a property sale contract to explain the source of about S$2 million deposited into his Maybank account. Another 12 charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

HOW SU WAS ROPED INTO THE ILLEGAL BUSINESS

The court heard that Su was introduced to an illegal remote gambling business by an "unknown Taiwanese man" in 2013.

The business involved online gambling websites, which punters from China would access through their phones for betting. 

Su joined the business, working initially from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, before going to Manila, Philippines. He advertised the websites and managed the workers who operated and maintained the gambling websites.

In August 2019, Su's children relocated to Singapore as he wanted them to study there, and Su followed a year later.

The Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force began receiving information of possible money laundering and the use of forged documents to mask the source of funds in Singapore bank accounts from 2021.

Investigations pointed to a group of foreign nationals, and the police launched islandwide simultaneous raids on Aug 15, 2023, to nab the suspects, including Su.

They raided Su's home at Third Avenue, seizing S$550,903 in cash from a safe in his master bedroom.

The money was from the illegal gambling business based in the Philippines, aimed at punters in China.

In Singapore, Su had a bank account with Maybank. In March 2021, Maybank's Financial Crime Compliance Unit sent an email to Su's relationship manager at Maybank, highlighting two suspicious deposits.

Su had received a sum of about S$1 million on Dec 2, 2020, and another sum of S$969,970 on Dec 3, 2020 into his Maybank account from Tuo Xin You Limited.

Su's relationship manager was instructed by the financial crime compliance unit to obtain supporting documents for these two deposits.

In response, Su said the money came from the purported sale of a property in Dubai to a person who owned Tuo Xin You Limited. He provided a property sale contract to back up his claim, but this was later found to be forged.

Su had lied about the origin of the money as he did not want Maybank to discover the real source.

About S$187 million worth of assets linked to Su or held under his wife's name have been seized - including cash, properties, vehicles, luxury goods, cryptocurrency and alcohol.

The properties are worth S$7.1 million and include apartments in Newton, Tanglin and Beach Road, as well as shophouses in Telok Ayer and Chinatown.

As part of his plea deal, Su has agreed to have at least 95 per cent of his seized assets forfeited to the state.

Prosecutors on Thursday sought 17 to 18 months' jail for Su, saying he indicated his guilty plea much later than the others, and that his crimes involved higher amounts.

DEFENCE ON TIMING OF SU'S GUILTY PLEA

Su was represented by two teams of lawyers: Senior Counsel N Sreenivasan, Ms Jerrie Tan and Ms Adorabelle Tan from K&L Gates Straits Law, and Mr Ravindran Ramasamy and Mr Arjun Ravindran from CNPLaw.

The defence asked for 14.5 months' jail instead, objecting to the prosecution's contention that Su was one of the last to indicate his plea of guilt.

Instead, the defence argued that Su had indicated his plea of guilt on the same day that the prosecution had informed the court they were ready for the plea to be taken.

While the prosecution claimed that Su wasted public resources by applying for some seized funds to be released for payment of basic expenses and causing the prosecution to review evidence to determine charges to proceed on for trial, the defence argued that the prosecution was not ready for the plea to be taken for more than nine months since Su's arrest.

The lawyers added that Su's agreement to forfeit about 95.5 per cent of his seized assets was among the highest compared with other offenders.

Since most of the other eight offenders sentenced so far received between 13 and 15 months' jail, there is "no reason" for the court to depart from that, the defence argued.

Su will be sentenced on Monday.

Of the 10 arrested and charged in the probe, eight have been sentenced to jail terms of between 13 and 15 months. The last accused person, Wang Dehai, is set to plead guilty on Friday.