Last man to enter plea in $3 billion money laundering case 'not truly remorseful': Prosecution

Source: The Straits Times
Author: Wong Shiying, Andrew Wong

SINGAPORE - Vanuatu national Su Jianfeng was on June 6 convicted of money laundering and forgery and has agreed to forfeit $178.9 million of his seized assets to the state.

Su, 36, pleaded guilty to two charges.

Another 12 will be taken into consideration for his sentencing on June 10.

Of the 10 foreigners arrested in August 2023 following islandwide raids at luxury homes here led by the Commercial Affairs Department, Su is the ninth person to be convicted.

His forfeited assets represent 95.5 per cent of the assets seized from him and his wife.

The court heard that Su was the last of the 10 foreigners to indicate he wanted to plead guilty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Teo said Su was involved in an illegal online gambling business based in the Philippines from 2013. He profited from helping to advertise and operate gambling websites that targeted punters in China.

He moved to Singapore in August 2020 as he wanted his children to study here, said DPP Teo.

Su's money laundering charge pertains to him possessing $550,903 in cash believed to be illicit benefits from his gambling offences. The cash was seized from a safe in his bedroom when he was arrested in August 2023.

As for his forgery charge, DPP Teo said Su had forged a property sale contract in March 2021 when he was asked by Maybank Singapore to explain the source of his two deposits worth $1,029,970 and $969,970 respectively.

The forged document showed he had sold a property in Burj Khalida in Dubai.

Seeking 17 to 18 months' jail, DPP Edwin Soh said Su had laundered a total of $17.5 million in Singapore, which is "no small sum".

He added that Su should not be given the full 30 per cent discount in sentencing for pleading guilty, as opposed to claiming trial, as he only opted to do so on May 24 after seeing the sentences meted out to the other eight offenders.

DPP Soh said: "The accused person did not plead guilty at the earliest opportunity as a genuine show of remorse."

Senior counsel N Sreenivasan sought 14 to 15 months' jail for his client, saying Su forfeited more than 10 times the amount of money involved in his eight money laundering charges.