Josephine Teo on Anti-Money Laundering and Other Matters Bill

The Government is pressing on with efforts to keep pace and deal effectively with attempts to launder criminal proceeds in Singapore. It is strengthening its three pillars of prevention, detection and enforcement to empower agencies with the levers and toolkits against money laundering. Firstly, the Bill will align its framework for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) with the standard of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to better prevent and detect money laundering. Secondly, the Bill will enhance the ability of Government agencies to detect and enforce against money laundering through enhanced data sharing and prosecutorial levers. Thirdly, the Bill will clarify and improve the processes to deal with seized or restrained properties linked to suspected criminal activities. On the AML/CFT framework for casino operators, the threshold for customer due diligence (CDD) checks will be lowered. Casino operators, when conducting CDD checks, are required to consider proliferation financing risks. The Bill also wants to designate foreign environmental crimes as money laundering predicate offences. These include illegal logging, land clearing, mining, waste trafficking and wildlife trade. The amendment will allow law enforcement agencies to investigate money laundering offences if it is suspected that the monies in Singapore are derived from such serious environmental crimes committed overseas. The Bill also proposed improving the processes to deal with seized properties, including those linked to money laundering, by allowing the Court to order the sale of a seized or restrained property without the consent of all parties involved. The Court must be satisfied that the value of the property is likely to depreciate, or undue costs are involved in maintaining the property, or the sale would be in the interests of justice. This would reduce the cost of property maintenance and preserve the value of seized or restrained properties to facilitate subsequent asset recovery and restitution to the victims. The amendments will also enable the Government to better deal with absconded suspects, through depriving them of the financial gains of their money laundering and other criminal activities if they refuse to return to Singapore for investigations. Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo, who highlighted the key proposals in Parliament on Tuesday (Aug 6), said the Bill is another step in strengthening Singapore’s AML/CFT regime and it will not be the last. “Singapore will therefore have to continue to be vigilant and we will not hesitate to further tighten our laws against money laundering where necessary, to ensure that our financial and business ecosystem remains reputable and trusted and continues to thrive,” she said.