Former bank employee implicated in $3b money laundering saga to plead guilty
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Wang Qiming was handed 10 charges on Aug 15.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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SINGAPORE – A former banking relationship manager, who allegedly facilitated offences contributing to Singapore’s largest money laundering case,
Wang Qiming, who was charged on Aug 15,
The 27-year-old former relationship manager at Citibank will return to court on Jan 8, 2025. He remains out on a bail of $25,000.
The Chinese national is the first person to face possible conviction for his role in assisting the money launderers.
During his time at the bank, Wang’s clients included two of the 10 convicted money launderers – Su Baolin and Vang Shuiming.
Prosecutors said that around December 2020, Wang allegedly abetted Su in making a false loan agreement to deceive Standard Chartered Bank about the source of a deposit made into Su’s bank account.
Wang had allegedly possessed $481,678 in cash that was reasonably suspected to be the benefits of Su’s criminal conduct.
Wang, who has not been able to satisfactorily explain where the money came from, faces one charge of laundering this sum.
Between April 19 and April 25, 2021, he also allegedly forged a loan document to deceive Citibank about the source of Vang’s funds, thus allowing a deposit of $999,980 into Vang’s bank account.
Wang faces one count of obstructing the course of justice by deleting on Oct 12, 2021, the WhatsApp application on his mobile phone which could have contained his communication records with the bank’s clients.
The former Citibank employee was also charged with providing false information to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer on Nov 15, 2021.
He claimed he had lost his passport, when it had actually been surrendered to the Singapore Police Force.
In court affidavits produced during the hearings of the 10 convicted foreigners, Commercial Affairs Department investigators said they had probed Wang in 2021 over alleged forgery claims before they arrested him.
His employment at Citibank was terminated in April 2022.
Investigations eventually led to simultaneous raids at luxury housing estates in Singapore on Aug 15, 2023,
Ten foreigners were nabbed and about $3 billion in cash and assets, including jewellery, watches, cars and bottles of alcohol, were seized or issued with prohibition of disposal orders.
The nine men and one woman were eventually convicted. They agreed to surrender more than $900 million in cash and assets as part of their plea deals.
The remaining sum was traced to 17 other suspects who had fled Singapore during the probe.
On Nov 18, the authorities said some $1.85 billion worth of assets, from 15 out of the 17 suspects who had evaded the authorities, have been surrendered to the state.
All of the 15 suspects have also been barred from returning to Singapore.
The 15 are: Su Yongcan, Wang Huoqiang, Su Fuxiang, Su Binghai, Wang Bingang, Su Shuiming, Su Shuijun, Ke Wendi, Wang Shuiting, Chen Zhiqiang, Liu Jiarong, Chen Peiyong, Zhao Dongying, Chen Mulin and Hu Chengmei.
Singaporean Liew Yik Kit, 41, the personal driver to Cambodian national Su Binghai, will return to court on Dec 12.
He faces two charges – one for lying to the police, and another for obstructing the course of justice.
Investigations into two remaining suspects on the run are ongoing.
Identified as Xu Haika and Xu Hainan, the pair’s assets, worth around $144.9 million, have been seized or subjected to prohibition of disposal orders.
