MONEY LAUNDERING OFFENCES

MONEY LAUNDERING OFFENCES

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(Update): **

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Ms Sylvia Lim asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs (a) how many persons had been charged in the last three years for money laundering offences, whether under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act or any other relevant legislation; (b) how many of those persons charged were Singapore citizens, permanent residents and foreigners; (c) what was the range of sums involved in the transactions; and (d) what was the outcome of the cases and the range of punishments meted out.

Mr Wong Kan Seng: The Corruption, Drug Trafficking and other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (CDSA) criminalises the laundering of benefits derived from corruption, drug trafficking and other serious crimes. Persons convicted under sections 43, 44, 46 and 47 of the CDSA can be fined a maximum of $500,000, or imprisoned for up to seven years or both. Non-individual persons (eg, a corporate or business entity) can be fined up to $1 million.

Over the past three years, a total of 66 persons have been charged in court for money laundering offences under the CDSA (17 in 2007, 23 in 2008, 26 in 2009). Of these 66, 45 were Singaporeans, two were Permanent Residents and 19 were foreigners. So far, a total of 63 persons have been convicted, while the remaining three cases are still pending in Court. In these money laundering cases, the sums involved in each transaction ranged from about S$1,000 to about S$500,000, while the sentences vary from two months imprisonment to 54 months imprisonment.

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