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Money laundering: Scammers set up companies and bank accounts in S’pore remotely during Covid-19

2023-09-27 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – Scammers were able to set up firms in Singapore and move their ill-gotten gains to bank accounts here by exploiting relaxed rules that allowed the registration processes to be conducted remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In total, they moved US$3.4 million (S$4.65 million) – money they had stolen from companies based overseas – to Singapore in 2020.

On Monday, Chinese national Liang Jiansen, who helped the scammers register companies here, was fined $9,000 for offences under the Companies Act.

The 33-year-old permanent resident pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to exercise reasonable diligence in his duty as a director, with one similar charge taken into consideration for sentencing. It was not stated in court documents whether the scammers were caught.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Vincent Ong said Liang, an accredited accountant who moved here in 2015, opened a corporate secretarial firm in 2020 because he heard the business was profitable.

His firm, Yuansen Business, charged $800 for a package which included providing a nominee director, corporate secretarial services and a registered company address. Clients had to pay an extra $100 to $150 if a bank account was required for the firm.

Most of the clients were from China, with Liang often registering himself as director. He did this to fulfil the statutory requirement for a locally resident director.

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As at January 2021, he was a director of 135 companies in Singapore.

DPP Ong said Liang worked with agents who referred Chinese nationals to him. Some time in August 2020, one of them referred a client to set up a company in Singapore.

The agent provided identification documents and a passport purportedly belonging to the individual and Liang incorporated the company, Xin Yang Wu, on Aug 9, with him as one of the directors and secretary.

Mail for the company was sent to Yuansen’s office. Another agent later contacted Liang and told him to open two bank accounts for Xin Yang Wu – one for US dollars and the other for Singapore dollars – with UOB.

The bank later sent Liang a letter to open accounts for the company, which he signed and returned.

Liang had taken similar steps to incorporate another firm, Zheng Yan, and opened a bank account for it at UOB that same month.

DPP Ong said large sums of money were transferred to the accounts soon after.

One of the victims was German company Gasfin Development. Between Oct 25 and Nov 9 that year, the company received e-mails purportedly from a supplier asking for payment.

Gasfin transferred $44,055 to Xin Yang Wu’s Singapore dollar account, thinking it was made to the supplier. Of the sum, $43,028 was later transferred to Xin Yang Wu’s US dollar account and then to a bank account in China.

On Oct 30 that year, American firm Northern Trust Company Chicago fell for a similar scam and transferred US$3 million (S$4.1 million) from its client’s account to Xin Yang Wu’s US dollar account.