SU HAIJIN, one of the 10 foreign nationals prosecuted in Singapore’s largest money-laundering case, was sentenced to an imprisonment term of 14 months after pleading guilty to one count of resisting arrest and two counts of money laundering on Thursday (Apr 4).
He agreed to have about 90 per cent of S$170 million worth of seized assets forfeited to the state as part of the plea bargain.
The 41-year-old had refused to open his room door at a Good Class Bungalow in Ewart Park in Bukit Timah when police tried to arrest him at around 6.40 am on Aug 15 last year in an islandwide anti-money-laundering blitz.
Su instead leapt from a second-floor balcony in a bid to escape but was caught hiding in a nearby drain. He fractured his wrist and feet as a result.
His 11 other charges – that were handed to him only on Monday and included abetting the making of false statements to the Ministry of Manpower offences – were taken into consideration for sentencing purposes by senior district judge Ong Hian Sun.
Su’s jail term has been backdated to the date of his arrest. The former director of Singapore Catalist-listed food and beverage operator No Signboard : 9I7 0% has been remanded in custody since then.
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The prosecution had argued for a jail term of 12 to 15 months, citing a few aggravating factors including that money laundering had a transnational element and the amounts involved were substantial. Su’s resisting arrest has raised his culpability, the deputy public prosecutor added.
In mitigating, Su’s lawyer said that the accused has agreed to surrender about S$165 million in cash and bank accounts, in addition to the forfeiture of jewellery, gold bars, liquor and Bearbricks (collectible toy figures produced by Japanese collectible company Medicom Toy) worth about S$3 million.
Su’s defence counsel Julian Tay said: “He’s not paying lip service, he’s literally walking the talk… He put money where his mouth is.”
Tay noted that Su has given up more than what was stated in the money laundering charges, and sought a jail term of not exceeding 11 months for his client.
Su’s conviction came after the 32-year-old Su Wenqiang on Tuesday pleaded guilty to two money laundering charges involving half a million of dollars and was sentenced to 13 months’ jail.
Su Wenqiang was the first in the group of nine men and one woman nabbed last August over money laundering charges to be dealt with by the court, and the Cambodian passport holder has also forfeited assets worth over S$5.9 million to the state.
The police have seized or frozen more than S$3 billion worth of assets from this group, including real estate, vehicles, money in bank accounts and cash.
Foreigners convicted of offences in Singapore will be deported after serving their sentences and barred from re-entering the Republic, said the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority. The location of deportation is dependent on the admissibility of the foreigner based on the person’s valid passport.
A third individual in the group, the 32-year-old Chinese national Wang Baosen who faces two charges, has a plead guilty court mention fixed for Apr 16.