Singapore: Money Laundering — Legal Implications for Financial Institutions

In October 1995, the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) with the assistance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration, uncovered a multi‐million dollar global money‐laundering syndicate run by a North American drug syndicate using a Singapore bank. The CAD recovered S$5.4m stashed in the bank. It was Singapore's largest money‐laundering case. The joint investigators found that the drug syndicate used couriers to smuggle money physically into Singapore between 1989 and 1992. The cash was laundered through money‐changers in Singapore and in the Middle East. Some of the illegal cash found its way into a secret Asian Currency Unit (ACU) account in the Singapore bank. The ACU account was in the name of an account holder who was arrested in Canada for drug trafficking. He surrendered the balance of S$5.4m found in the ACU account to the CAD after a Confiscation Order was issued by the Subordinate Court. The Canadian authorities believe this amount is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’. Since money laundering is not an extraditable offence, the account holder was not prosecuted in Singapore. The bank used by the syndicate was also not prosecuted for money laundering.