TURKEY passport holder Vang Shuiming, who has the most charges out of the 10 foreign nationals involved in Singapore’s largest money laundering case, is expected to plead guilty on May 14, court records on Thursday (Apr 25) showed.
This makes him the sixth accused to indicate a guilty plea in the more than S$3 billion money laundering case.
Vang, also known as Wang Shuiming, faces a total of 22 charges related to fraud, forgery and money laundering. He is represented by Wendell Wong of Drew & Napier.
In March, he was handed six charges for allegedly submitting forged financial statements of two companies – Xiamen Yetian Trading and Xiamen Likanghang Trading – from 2017 to 2019 to private bank Julius Baer’s Singapore branch as supporting documentation on Jul 19, 2022.
He was previously slapped with 11 charges for submitting forged financial statements from 2015 to 2021 of the same two companies, plus another one – Xiamen Mingxin Guarantee – to brokerage firm UOB Kay Hian.
The other five charges range from allegedly possessing S$2.4 million in criminal benefits generated from unlicensed moneylending operations in China, to submitting a forged bank statement to Citibank Singapore.
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Vang was arrested on Aug 15, 2023, at a Good Class Bungalow along Bishopsgate. More than S$200 million of his assets have been seized or issued prohibition of disposal orders, which means they cannot be sold.
He has been in remand since his arrest. After reviews at the State Court denied him bail, Vang applied twice to the High Court to be released on bail through a process known as criminal revision.
Both attempts were unsuccessful. The court had found Vang to be a flight risk due to his significant wealth overseas and multiple passports from countries such as Turkey, China and Vanuatu.
As for the other nine involved in the case, three – Su Wenqiang, Su Haijin and Wang Baosen – have been handed jail sentences of 13 to 14 months. Another two – Su Baolin and Zhang Ruijin – are expected to plead guilty next week. The remaining four are still in remand.
