$200 million innocence: lawyers bid for client’s release in $1.8b money laundering case rejected

In mid-August, ten individuals were arrested in an islandwide raid led by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD). At that time, approximately $1 billion worth of assets were involved. Since their arrest on August 16, all ten individuals have remained in custody, and the assets seized have ballooned to more than $1.8 billion.

Now, amidst investigations, lawyers for one of the accused, Vang Shuiming, have requested for either a revocation of their client’s remand, or “liberal” access to their client during meetings. Despite the large scale of this case, as well as previous failed attempts at revoking Vang’s remand, lead defence counsel Mr. Wendell Wong said that he and his team “cannot find and know of no other cases involving anti-money laundering cases where the prosecution said they need more than … three weeks of further remand in order to conduct further investigations”, and argued for Vang’s “fundamental liberties and presumption of innocence”.

Assets seized from Vang alone are valued to be more than $200 million. More than $962,000 in cash was seized from his residence, 11 properties were under his ownership, and more than $120 million held in banks under his name.

In addition to his 5 charges, Vang is wanted by Chinese authorities for illegal gambling activities, and the CAD is currently waiting on information from foreign authorities on whether he is wanted by them.

All requests by Vang’s defence counsel were rejected by the High Court of Singapore; Justice Vincent Hoong dismissed the applications as they did not meet the high threshold for a criminal revision.

Vang, along with the other nine accused, will appear in court on September 6 for further mentions.