Landing page banner

The Police will be charging a 56-year-old man and a 50-year-old woman in court on 5 August 2026 for their suspected involvement in money laundering offences. 

In August 2024, the Police received a report that an overseas company had been a victim of an impersonation scam, whereby fraudulent instructions were issued to transfer funds to the local bank accounts maintained by the man and the woman.  Investigations revealed that between 2023 and 2024, the 56-year-old man had received close to SGD 200,000 in his personal bank accounts, including a total sum of USD 47,450 originating from an overseas scam victim, with the remaining funds believed to have originated from other victims of scams. These funds were subsequently dissipated to other entities, including a local company of which the man was a director.

The man will be charged with: 

• nine counts of an offence under Section 54(3) punishable under Section 54(5)(a) of the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 (“CDSA”) for possessing the above-mentioned funds in his accounts; and
  
  
• one count of an offence under Section 157(1) punishable under Section 157(3)(b) of the Companies Act 1967 for failing to use reasonable diligence in the discharge of his duties as a director of his company. 

The woman’s bank account was also surfaced during the course of  investigations, which revealed that her bank account had received over SGD 9,000 from a love scam victim in August 2024. Investigations revealed that despite harbouring suspicions about the origins of the monies, the woman did not make further enquiries and proceeded to transfer more than SGD 8,000 of the said funds to an unacquainted person at the behest of another unidentified individual. 

The woman will be charged with:

• one count of an offence under Section 54(3A)(a)(ii) read with Section 54(3A)(b)(i) and punishable under Section 54(6)(a) of the CDSA. This is one of the earliest cases of prosecution for rash money laundering since the new offence came into effect on 8 February 2024.

Under Section 54(5) of the CDSA, the offence of possessing property while knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that the property represents another person’s benefits of criminal conduct under Section 54(3) of the CDSA carries an imprisonment term not exceeding 10 years or a fine not exceeding S$500,000, or both, if the person is an individual.

Under Section 54(6) of the CDSA, the offence of rashly transferring property representing another person’s benefits from criminal conduct under Section 54(3A)(b)(i) of the CDSA carries an imprisonment term not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding S$250,000, or both, if the person is an individual. 

Under Section 157(3)(b) of the Companies Act, the offence of failing to use reasonable diligence in the discharge of duties as a director under Section 157(1) of the Companies Act, carries a fine of up to S$5,000 or an imprisonment term of up to 12 months.

The Police take a serious stance against any person involved in money laundering activities, and offenders will be dealt with firmly in accordance with the law. To avoid becoming an accomplice to such crimes, members of the public should always reject requests by others to use their personal or corporate bank accounts for the receipt or transfer of monies on behalf of others, and should exercise due diligence when dealing with any requests involving financial transactions.