Only woman in S$3bil money laundering case jailed 15 months
SINGAPORE: Chinese national Lin Baoying, the only woman to be charged in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, was sentenced to 15 months’ jail on Thursday (May 30).

Lin, 44, faced 10 charges and pleaded guilty to three charges.

They included two charges of using as genuine a forged document and one money laundering charge.

Seven other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Of the 10 foreigners arrested in August 2023 following islandwide raids at luxury homes here led by the Commercial Affairs Department, Lin is the eighth person to be sentenced.

She had more than $170.5 million in assets seized after her arrest. About 90 per cent – or $153 million – will be forfeited to the state.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Gan Ee Kiat said that before Aug 24, 2020, Lin had sent a CIMB relationship manager a forged document showing the sale of a property in China that purportedly had her and the buyer’s signatures.

The prosecutor said Lin had instructed her assistant to obtain the false sale and purchase agreement to satisfy CIMB’s request to explain the source of a deposit made to her bank account.

He added that Lin did not know the buyer in the forged document and had not signed the agreement.

After another deposit was made to her UOB Kay Hian account on Aug 11, 2020, the stockbroking arm of UOB requested through her trading representative that she explain the source of the deposit and provide supporting documentation.

She sent the manager a document showing the sale of a property in Macau.

DPP Gan said Lin had not entered into any agreement to sell such a property and did not know who the buyer was.

The prosecutor said Lin had instructed her assistant to obtain the fake agreement to satisfy UOB Kay Hian’s request, and that Lin knew she could not satisfactorily explain the source of funds.

DPP Gan added that Lin was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation as to how she came to have HK$7.5 million (S$1.3 million) in one of her bank accounts.

During police investigations, Lin admitted the funds came from an unregistered gambling operation in another jurisdiction.

DPP Gan asked the court to sentence Lin to between 15 and 17 months’ jail, saying she used intermediaries and forged documents to avoid scrutiny from financial institutions in Singapore.

He said such sophisticated means made the offences difficult to detect and investigate, and that deterrence is needed so such offences do not become more prevalent.

Lin was represented by a team of lawyers including Chew Kei-Jin.

He asked the court to sentence Lin to not more than 13 months’ jail, and cited the sentence meted out to other offenders in the case.

Chew added that Lin is a single mother of two children, and had come here to build a life for them.

Highlighting how the case had impacted her daughter, the lawyer said: “She has stopped attending school and that is something which is a direct result of what is happening to her mother.”

DPP Gan replied that, out of the eight who have pleaded guilty, only Zhang Ruijin’s amount laundered is comparable to Lin’s case and that the other amounts are substantially lower.

It was revealed in earlier court proceedings that Lin and Zhang were lovers and have known each other for more than a decade.

Lin calls Zhang her husband, though they are not officially married.

But in Zhang’s first court appearance the day after his arrest, he referred to Lin and said: “You can separate her crimes from me, we are just lovers... You can bail me out, but remand her.”

Following Lin’s case, more than $713 million in assets have been forfeited by the eight foreigners convicted so far.

Su Wenqiang, Su Haijin, Su Baolin, Wang Baosen, Vang Shuiming, Zhang Ruijin and Chen Qingyuan were sentenced to between 13 and 15 months’ jail each.

Su Wenqiang and Wang Baosen were deported to Cambodia on May 6 after serving about 8½ months of their 13-month jail term.

The remaining two plan to plead guilty next week.

Su Jianfeng is set to plead guilty on June 6, while Wang Dehai intends to do so on June 7. - The Straits Times/ANN
Singapore,money,laundering,Lin Baoying
SINGAPORE: Chinese national Lin Baoying, the only woman to be charged in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, was sentenced to 15 months’ jail on Thursday (May 30).