A pair of former bankers from Julius Baer and Citi have been charged over Singapore’s historic money laundering case.
Wang Qiming has been slapped with 10 charges over the S$3 billion ($2.3 billion) money laundering scandal in Singapore, according to a «Bloomberg» report citing charge sheets read out in a local state court. The charges include forging documents to cheat a bank, money laundering and more.
The clients of Wang, 26, allegedly include Su Baolin and Vang Shuiming, two of the 10 foreign nationals previously convicted and sentenced to prison in the headline case. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s public records, Wang used to work at Citi.
Liu Kai was also delivered one charge for abetting Lin Baoying, another one of the 10 launderers, to submit a forged tax document to the bank. Liu, 35, previously worked at Julius Baer. Both Wang and Liu are Chinese nationals.
Bank Responses
According to a Citi spokesperson, Wang hasn’t been employed at the bank since April 2022, adding it does not comment on ongoing court matters.
A Julius Baer spokesperson said the bank was «fully cooperating with the authorities» and is committed to supporting their efforts to uphold the integrity of the Singapore financial system.
Su Binghai’s Driver
In addition, 41-year old Liew Yik Kit was charged with one count of obstructing justice by disposing of four luxury cars and another count for lying about it to the police. Liew is a Singapore citizen and the personal driver of Su Binghai, who fled is wanted for his involvement in the case.
«Banks as important gatekeepers of our financial system have compliance systems in place to detect and turn away criminal funds. We rely on the integrity of bankers in general and relationship managers in particular, as the interface between clients and the banks, to ensure this,» said David Chew, director of Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department, in a separate statement.
«Those who help clients circumvent their financial institutions’ due diligence processes or who help clients forge documents to conceal the true nature of their assets, must be dealt with robustly under our laws.»
