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On 24 October 2025, Liu Kai (“Liu”), a 36-year-old male Chinese national, was convicted and sentenced to an imprisonment term of four months for one count under Section 471 read with Section 468 and Section 109 of the Penal Code, for using as genuine a forged document. His case relates to Lin Baoying (“Lin”), one of the 10 foreign nationals who was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for money laundering and other offences [1].

Background of the case 

Liu was employed as a relationship manager at the Singapore branch of Bank Julius Baer & Co Ltd (“BJB”) at the material time. On 2 August 2020, Lin contacted Liu for assistance in opening a bank account with BJB in Switzerland. To facilitate the application, Liu requested for supporting documents that showed proof of Lin’s income, such as income tax documents. In response, Lin requested Liu to provide her with samples of tax documents filed in China, and asked Liu for advice on the amount of taxes that should be reflected on her tax documents. Liu then provided Lin a few samples, informed Lin that her tax document should reflect an income in the region of RMB 500,000, and added that a whole number would look suspicious. 

Subsequently, Lin sent Liu a Tax Payment Certificate purportedly issued by the Chinese tax authorities as proof of her income for application to BJB. Liu suspected that the document was forged, via edits made to one of the sample documents he had earlier sent Lin. Liu then guided Lin to make further edits to the document so that the information within would be more consistent with her earlier representations to BJB regarding the source and amount of her income. 

On 24 November 2020, Liu received several revised versions of the Chinese tax document from Lin, and submitted one of the versions to BJB Singapore Branch. Liu had intended for the bank to find the document satisfactory and approve the opening of the account for Lin. Subsequent investigations showed that the document was forged and had not been issued by the Chinese authorities. 

Any person who commits an offence under Section 471 read with Section 468 of the Penal Code shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of up to 10 years and a fine. 

The Police take a very serious stance against acts to deceive financial institutions. They compromise the integrity of Singapore’s financial system. The Police will take tough enforcement action against the perpetrators.

[1]: Police News Release dated 30 May 2024. Lin Baoying has since completed serving her sentence. She was deported on 15 June 2024 and barred from re-entering Singapore.