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Three men and a woman, aged between 60 and 63, have been charged on 8 July 2026 for their suspected involvement in money laundering and for carrying on businesses for fraudulent purposes in relation to a Value Added Tax (“VAT”) carousel fraud scheme involving gold smuggling. Seow Choon Pheng, Seow Choon Lien, Chu Tung Wu and Tan Kui Moi face charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (Cap 65A, 2000 Rev Ed) (“CDSA”) and the Companies Act (Cap 50, 2006 Rev Ed) (“CA”). The details of the charges are set out in the Annex.

The four accused persons operated Singapore-registered corporate entities — Macropac System Pte Ltd ("Macropac"), Megaspeed Services Pte Ltd ("Megaspeed Services"), and Seg Metallic Electronics Trading Pte Ltd ("Seg Metallic") — which imported signal converters from two suppliers operated by a criminal syndicate in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"). Preliminary investigations revealed that the criminal syndicate arranged for gold to be concealed within the signal converters, which were then declared to China Customs as high-tech products and exported to the Singapore entities at inflated prices, thereby defrauding the PRC authorities of substantial export VAT refunds. Upon arrival in Singapore, the signal converters were dismantled, with the gold extracted and sold, and the mainboards exported back to China via Hong Kong companies for reassembly into the next batch. This facilitated the transfer of the fraudulently obtained VAT refunds to the Hong Kong-based mastermind through payments for these mainboards. This carousel-like arrangement allowed the criminal syndicate to perpetuate the scheme by creating a paper trail of sham transactions disguised as legitimate trades.

The Commercial Affairs Department (“CAD”) uncovered the elaborate scheme after receiving information on a possible VAT carousel fraud in November 2020. As the information disclosed possible trade-based money laundering activities, the CAD conducted extensive probes into the activities of the syndicate through close collaboration with Singapore Customs and PRC law enforcement counterparts. 

Director CAD, Ms. Peggy Pao said, “Singapore, as an international hub for trade, transport and finance, remains vigilant against criminal syndicates who seek to operate fraudulent businesses or launder their illicit proceeds through Singapore. We greatly appreciate the close collaboration between CAD and our Chinese counterparts in this case, which enabled us to disrupt the syndicate’s sophisticated operations and prosecute the case.”

Prescribed punishment 

If convicted, the offence of money laundering for individuals under Section 44(1)(a) of the CDSA (or the current Section 51(1)(a) of the CDSA) carries an imprisonment term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to S$500,000, or both. For knowingly carrying on a business for a fraudulent purpose, an offender can be liable to imprisonment of up to 7 years, a fine of up to $15,000, or both, under Section 340(5) of the CA.

For failing to exercise reasonable diligence in the discharge of their duties as a director, an offender can be jailed for up to 12 months or fined up to $5,000 under Section 157(3)(b) of the CA. Upon conviction, the offender may also be disqualified from being a director under Section 154 of the CA. For punishment of abetment under Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) (“PC”), any person who abets the commission of an offence is liable to be punished with the same penalty prescribed for that offence.

Annex