Billion-dollar money laundering case: Suspect gets new charges of using forged papers, having criminal proceeds

SINGAPORE: Lin Baoying, the single person among 10 suspects in Singapore’s multibillion- money money- fraud analysis, was on Tuesday ( May 21 ) handed seven fresh charges.

The new costs relate to bank-submitted frauds and suspected criminal money being in the hands of the suspects.

After the claims were tendered, Lin’s attorney Mr Chew Kei- han informed the court that she wished to confess innocent.

Lin therefore made a statement and requested an earlier hearing time for her plea. The 44-year-old Chinese national made an appearance via video website and followed the trials through a Mandarin speaker.

The new claims mean Lin is then accused of a total of 10 counts of infractions. Prior to this, she was accused of falsifying income documents for a home in Macau and of lying about how to prepare the sales agreement.

On Monday, the two classic fraud charges were changed.

Lin is currently accused of submitting a fictitious copy of a property sale agreement in Macau to justify deposits of nearly HK$ 122. 5 ( US$$ 15.7 million ) in CIMB Bank accounts and HK$ 75 million in HK Standard Chartered Bank accounts.

In addition to the forged property sale documents that she is accused of submitting to UOB Kay Hian and the Oversea- Chinese Banking Corporation ( OCBC ) as part of the new charges, she is also accused of assisting OCBC in defending deposits of HK$$ 12.5 million across both accounts.

She is accused of having nearly HK$ 210 million, which she claims to have been divided between her four bank accounts, and is suspected of having at least some judicial funds.

Additionally, she allegedly conspired with two Liu Kai and Li Hongmin to defraud Bank Julius Baer & Co. by using one Liu Kai and one Li Hongmin to falsify a duty pay document.

Lin may go back to court on Thursday for a pre-trial meeting.

Her companion, Zhang Ruijin, 45, was sentenced to 15 months ‘ prison after pleading guilty to three charges in April for his part in the money- trafficking activity.

Last August, the pair was detained in a home along Pearl Island in Sentosa Cove.

Prior to this, the prosecution claimed Lin had a teenage girl who lived with a domestic helper in Beach Road and a separate girl who lived in Sentosa.

The combined assets between Lin and Zhang came to about S$ 325 million &nbsp, ( US$ 240 million ), with Lin having the larger share of the pie, a court previously heard.

The situation is the largest money-laundering probe in Singapore and likely one of the biggest money-laundering activities in the world because more than S$ 3 billion in property have been seized or frozen in relation to it.

Six of the ten offenders have received convictions and sentences ranging from 13 to 15 months in prison. More than S$ 540 million in assets have been seized from the position thus much.