Billion-dollar money laundering case: Jail for personal driver who lied about 4 luxury cars out of greed

CNA

a day ago

SINGAPORE: The personal driver of Su Binghai, a man implicated in the billion-dollar moneylaundering case, was sentenced to three months' jail on Monday (Jun 30) after lying that Su did not leave any valuable properties in his possession.
In fact, Su had left four luxury cars to Liew Yik Kit along with instructions to sell them.
Liew, a 42-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the police and one count of obstructing justice.
Investigations into the complex case of money laundering date back to 2021, when the authorities received tip-offs on a group of foreigners using forged documents to launder money in the country.
The police identified a group of foreign nationals involved in the laundering the criminal proceeds from overseas organised crime, such as scams and online gambling.
The case came to a head on Aug 15, 2023, when the police conducted simultaneous raids across the island and arrested 10 individuals - nine men and one woman - from estates around the country.
The authorities also seized more than S$3 billion (US$2.35 billion) worth of assets suspected to be linked to money laundering offences.
All 10 have since been convicted and sentenced on a multitude of offences, chief of which was money laundering.
Su, a Chinese national involved in a syndicate with some of the 10 arrested, has not been arrested.
On Oct 9 last year, he and his wife Wang Manzu confirmed their consent to have their seized property surrendered to the state.
An estimated total of more than S$316.6 million - including an estimated S$8,364,297 for the four cars - was surrendered.
The police said in November last year that 15 of the 17 foreigners who had fled Singapore amid probes into the case had agreed to surrender about S$1.85 billion worth of assets to the state.
Su was one of those who had agreed to surrender their assets in exchange for being removed from Interpol watchlists. His case is now closed and he is barred from returning to Singapore.
ACCUSED WANTED TO TAKE CONTROL OF CARS QUICKLY
On the day of the raids, Liew drove Su out of Singapore via Tuas Checkpoint in the evening.
He dropped Su off at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Aug 17, 2023, before heading back to Singapore alone.
Before he flew off, Su told Liew to help him sell his four luxury cars, which were in his house. These were a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Rolls Royce Cullinan, a Ferrari F8 Spider and a Ferrari Stradale. Su left Liew the keys to his cars.
Liew agreed as he expected to get about 1 per cent of the commission for the sale price of the four cars, and he estimated that the four cars were worth about S$8 million.
On Aug 18, 2023, Liew went to Su's house and progressively drove the four cars to a multi-storey car park at Upper Boon Keng Road.
He had not found a buyer at that point but wanted to take control of the cars quickly, the prosecution told the court.
Liew then contacted a car brokerage company, Pro Carz, for the purposes of selling the vehicles before shifting them to another car park at Roxy Square in the Marine Parade area.
By the time the police raided Su's house on Sep 4, 2023, the authorities could not find Su or the four cars.
LIED DUE TO GREED
Liew had his statement recorded on Sep 11, 2023.
By then, he suspected that Su was wanted by the police as he had repeatedly failed to contact him. In his statement, Liew lied that Su had not left any valuable properties in his possession.
He lied out of greed as he wanted the S$80,000 in commission expected from the sale of the cars, according to the prosecution.
Concerned about investigations, Liew then drove the four cars back to the multi-storey car park at Upper Boon Keng Road to get rid of them.
This car park was newly built, so the parking system was not ready.
The four cars were left there until the police found them in October 2023.
The authorities managed to trace the cars' movement to Roxy Square's car park, and found that a car dealer had applied for season parking for luxury cars there.
The dealer revealed that the four cars were in Liew's possession. The authorities then arrested Liew on Oct 5, 2023.
Liew lied to the police in one of Singapore's "biggest and more complex investigations", the prosecution said in seeking three to four months' jail for Liew.
"As a result of his provision of false information to the police and the movement of the cars, the police only managed to recover the properties almost one month later, and only upon receiving intelligence and expending significant effort in investigations.