Proposed law allows Singapore courts to order the sale of seized property linked to criminal activity

No direct connection to criminal conduct is required

Under the Act, there is no need to prove that funds suspected of money laundering in Singapore are directly linked to specific criminal conduct.

The Home Office said it was sufficient for prosecutors to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that the money launderer knew or had reasonable grounds to believe they were dealing with the proceeds of crime.

This will allow money launderers to be prosecuted if the laundered funds have been transferred through overseas bank accounts and intermediaries before entering Singapore.

The Ministry of Home Affairs noted that currently law enforcement agencies face challenges in obtaining necessary evidence from foreign victims, entities and authorities, especially if the proceeds of crime have passed through many jurisdictions before entering Singapore.

The bill introduced on Tuesday also seeks to make serious foreign environmental crimes predicate offenses for money laundering.

This will allow law enforcement agencies to investigate money laundering crimes if they suspect that funds in Singapore were derived from money laundering crimes committed overseas.

In addition, the revised bill will allow government agencies such as the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore and the Singapore Customs to share tax and trade data with Singapore’s financial BroadCast Unitedligence unit, the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office.

Anti-money laundering and financial terrorism regulators will also have access to suspicious transaction reports filed by entities they regulate.

Finally, the bill will also Tightening rules for casino operators Conduct customer due diligence checks to detect and prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.

Proliferation financing involves the provision of funds or financial services for the illegal development and supply of weapons of mass destruction and related materials.

To comply with the standards of the Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, casinos must conduct due diligence when they make cash deposits of S$4,000 or more into customer accounts.

This is a decrease from the current S$5,000 threshold. This is the first revision to the threshold and will be implemented this year.