TODAY/CNA-Oct 3
The government will set up a new inter-ministerial committee to review Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime and ensure it stays up to date with increasingly sophisticated crimes, said Second Minister for Finance and National Development Indranee Rajah in parliament on Tuesday (Oct 3). Ms Indranee will chair the new committee, comprising political office holders from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and four ministries: Home Affairs, Law, Manpower, and Trade and Industry.
Ms Indranee was delivering a ministerial statement in response to questions filed by Members of Parliament (MPs) about the recent billion-dollar money laundering case.
In one of Singapore’s biggest money laundering probes, 10 foreigners were arrested in August when the Singapore police raided multiple locations, including Good Class Bungalows and condominiums, across the island. In an update given in an earlier ministerial statement by Second Minister for Home Affairs Josephine Teo, the value of assets seized or frozen now stands at over S$2.8 billion, close to triple the original S$1 billion figure when the case was first made public on Aug 16. “As this case has shown, criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Even as we identify new areas to tighten, criminals will invariably find new loopholes to exploit,” said Ms Indranee. With that, government agencies and relevant industry players “must become ever more coordinated” to uncover and arrest money laundering activities, she added. “To this end, we must strengthen our information-gathering and intel-sharing capabilities so that we can better detect illicit activities conducted by companies incorporated in Singapore.” Read more at: https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/new-inter-ministerial-committee-review-and-strengthen-singapores-anti-money-laundering-regime-2272626
