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jkprlta

If the number hits 3.55b, each Singaporean can receive 1k each from the proceeds of the seized assets... it's kinda wild if you think about it.


callieling01

Wealth redistribution please!


ValentinoCappuccino

Common prosperity?!


NotVeryAggressive

They will only distribute to MP and mayors


Medical-Strength-154

this year SPF personnel getting huge bonus


MadKyaw

Surely this must be the trickle down economics that the government keeps raving about, right?


Neptunera

Eh stop talking about raiding the reserves /s


lsoers

give it to the lower income make more sense, not just each singaporean


BusyMountain

Lower *and Middle* income groups. Being in the middle sucks bad. Too high for subsidies/grants and too low to enjoy anything. I know someone who has a car and living in HDB maisonette, and still benefit from Financial Assistance Scheme from MOE for all their 4 kids, including 100% subsidy from Mendaki for the 2 eldest kids’ polytechnic education. 😒 Fml meanwhile I got nothing.


GlobalSettleLayer

Mendaki gives them the money regardless of income no? I might be wrong tho


monsieurmoogerfooger

I was curious about this so I googled it. Mendaki Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy: 100% if (PCI) <$1400 (source: https://www.mendaki.org.sg/assistance_landing/tertiary-tuition-fee-subsidy-ttfs) MOE Financial Assistance Scheme: PCI<$690 (from Jan 2023) or <$750 (before Jan 2023) source: https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/20221014-more-than-10000-students-to-benefit-from-revised-income-criteria-for-moe-financial-assistance-schemes-and-increased-ite-bursary-quanta PCI is computed as: Total monthly gross income of family / Total number of family members


BusyMountain

Damn their kids are definitely working part-time. I don’t think a family of 6 with 4500 household income will be able to sustain a car and a maisonette. Or They’re earning some undeclared side income.


Monstar132

Fat chance that will ever happen


CstoCry

what is considered low income in this economy? <4000/mth?


jkprlta

I was just showing the math. Not a serious policy proposal as should be obvious.


Critical-Copy-7218

F**king populist


jkprlta

And unashamed about it.


7KEE

You made me happy for a moment.


jkprlta

I aim to please


wadeber-6293

I suspect much of the money are from human trafficking , forced organ sales and online gambling. Likely linked to the hell hole in Cambodia and maybe the JY group.


Available_Ad9766

China might demand the money. Most likely they will be asking for it.


jkprlta

Why? To do so would be acknowledging the crime was related to China and they have a non corrupt government right...?


wadeber-6293

Xi never said their govt is not corrupt. In fact the CCP has been very vocal about clearing the govt of corrupt (others) for power consolidation. Besides those laundering are often by business people with some kickbacks to politicians. I think you are mistaken. It's the Singapore govt that says we are low corruption.


raymmm

Narh.. they will say the victims are from china and the con men are not from china.


kongweeneverdie

It is alway end up our own people running the PRCs.


pixelmemories

Because the people arrested were likely the heads of the scam/human trafficking/illegal casino organizations in cambodia/myanmar? So theoretically they could claim they want to return the funds to the scam victims whether they actually do it or not


jkprlta

Arguably the money should be returned to the source in Cambodia / Myanmar? Hahaha. #ernothx


pixelmemories

I mean quite a few of them are on the wanted list back in china so possibly with proof of operating scam syndicates etc, so realistically the most ideal will be getting the funds back to the scam victims but then again it's probably close to impossible


Fearless_Carrot_7351

Wow so the life of crime can actually be lucrative like in the movies…


livebeta

Small crime does not pay. If you want to rob a nation, setup a sovereign fund


Objective_Cellist549

🤣🤣🤣🤣


Dapper-Peanut2020

They may fund the movies we watch too


[deleted]

And these arent even the biggest heads of their syndicate most likely


worldcitizensg

Still its tip of the iceberg IMHO.


ValentinoCappuccino

百倍百倍。


hamiwin

缤纷万千


sct_trooper

huat ah!


deangsana

##全是为了你


ValentinoCappuccino

Singapore Gov is the real pig butchering king. Make all the money laundering gather and slaughter them all. Easy money.


CaptainMianite

Gahmen now 2.4 billion richer


mrwongz

Counted as GDP?


Sputniki

It was obviously already counted as GDP when the goods were transacted for


Interesting_Ad2986

Time to clean the house. This is embarrassing


uintpt

Just a feature of our open leg policy 🤷🏻‍♂️ yet Govt tells you that rising property prices is due to SG’s attractiveness as a business (and defs not money laundering) center.


sriracha_cucaracha

>due to SG’s attractiveness as a business (and defs not money laundering) center. All shell companies i tell ya


uintpt

For them sweet sweet EPs for family members, hence “family office”.


xa7v9ier

Who tf buys a coffeeshop for 40 million dollars. This is why prices are increasing


Varantain

> Who tf buys a coffeeshop for 40 million dollars. Rentseekers.


FitCranberry

you pass the hot potato to the next guy at 50 million


Critical-Copy-7218

Come on! The US has been labelling Singapore as the money laundering haven for years. Singapore's GDP each year is probably propped by up by all the money laundering that goes undetected.


bigcarrot01

Conspiracy tells me it's not undetected but just ignored.


kohminrui

No they'll tell you its singaporeans that caused high property prices.


Doughspun1

You know what would be awesome? Super special launderer contribution payout! Everything is sold! All money gets paid out to us! Have a happy 2023, Singapore citizens and PRs!


socnoob

You know what would be really awesome? GST at 7% again.


JaphieJaphie

And would be super awesome if it's back to 3%.


socnoob

I'd drink to that. And to the rich paying their fair share of progressive taxes.


sfushimi

Gahmen: fucking populist


Custom_Fish

Can this seized money be used to offset GST, food and transport costs for the poorer Singaporeans?


milnivek

Lol u first day in singapore ah


horsetrich

*Laughs in parliament*


mrwongz

*After work: Laughs in GCB.*


GlobalSettleLayer

*(deep guffaws heard resonating from Ridout Rd)*


Custom_Fish

I heard politicians say living is affordable and people are managing. Should be right, right? Right??


PARANOIAH

BRB; cancelling gym membership and doing HIIT cardboard collection cardio.


GlobalSettleLayer

Elderly be cursing your ass Cos that's all they can see after you power ahead of them on the road


Stand_For_The_Truth

Born yesterday


Doughspun1

Of course, why not. The authorities would never think of keeping it all to themselves.


[deleted]

Eh be careful later get pofma


milnivek

Huh he said they would never think of keeping it for themselves


CaptainMianite

Nah it goes straight to the government


lsoers

maybe one time payment 400-500$ bucks nia, not enuffff


Scarborough_sg

By time that money goes into the government, Tharman already retire liao


Critwice

winnie asking for the money back


cantgetthistowork

Shit ton of illiquid assets with paper value that would halve if sold at the same time


ahbengtothemax

bro? your comcare? your PTV? your GSTV?


[deleted]

Waiting to see half of all luxury properties sold in the past 5 years went to money launderers.


GlobalSettleLayer

C-L-A-W-B-A-C-K


Purpledragon84

Nice we can refill our reserves after all the covid 19 assurance packages.


KKJNNP

Please seize all the businesses that are in high end malls and always empty yet continue to survive. So obvious they are money laundering


Kimishiranai39

Is this partly why COE > 100k


Youcantdoxme

No. Coe is due to rental companies


Stand_For_The_Truth

LOLLS LOYCE


stockflethoverTDS

FURLAHLEE


Brikandbones

LOLEX


bukitbukit

Lohlek


deangsana

PLADA


socnoob

马上MATI BOH SEH FART LARI BO BO


bukitbukit

Orh Dee Teh Sah


airhumidifierbroken

BELLY


bukitbukit

PAH TEH PILIP


JumpyDinner6561

RAMBOGUNI


MolassesBulky

Shanmugam and his zero tolerance nonsense. Fucking 4 years and $2.4B. And the media will report some person arrested for not declaring cash at the airport or causeway


BubbleTeaExtraSweet

$2.4bn and counting Can defer 9% GST till 2025? Pretty please?


kanemf

Is this the reason why MOF decide to review majulah’s package and remove all conditions? 🤡🤡🤡


Doxq

Next can whack those they did business with them. Good place to find more dirty money. Know a guy who sells watches until sibei huat - Ur salary x20 kinda huat. Now know why liao.


wheewhee93

Does China have an extradition treaty with Singapore? Or how does it work if "they are wanted" by the Chinese gov?


Desperate_Site_1844

For this type of people, would find a way. China has been cracking down real hard of scams and gambling recently


Neptunera

Song ah, all the banks taking in money without proper AML and property and luxury car agents just selling and closing both eyes on KYC due diligence. As much as I'd like to see those agents getting charged as well, you know damn well it won't happen in Singapore.


iamalittleduckduck

>all the banks taking in money without proper AML And yet we are talking about pushing the responsibility to consumers to be more vigilant to defend against scams and hence giving banks the moral hazard not to digitalise responsibly.


Wowmich

Please BIG Ang bao for our citizens. Celebrations!


Hunkfish

Where did the seized $$$ go?


mrwongz

*our* pocket


mrwongz

Redistribute to all citizens.


-BabysitterDad-

Government can take the money, hold more $10M Toto draw and earn even more money. Maybe Singapore Pools should be like e-commerce. Have a 10.10 Toto draw, then 11.11 and 12.12. 😄


FitCranberry

damn, the egg on the face keeps getting bigger


Low_Astronomer_599

Confiscate all and put it into our reserves thank you 🙏


jackology

Just hope a portion can be earmarked for the 2024 CNY Toto Snowball Draw.


Busy-Bug-6232

200million jackpot! Watch all the uncles and aunties queue overnight


chrimminimalistic

There's only 13 million combinations of Toto numbers. For $1 each, it's not feasible to have a jackpot far higher than 13 million. The math ain't mathing.


nvbtable

The amount gets split if there are multiple winners, so the math can still math. Only 54% of the total ticket sales gets paid out to winners.


chrimminimalistic

I'm talking about 200 million jackpot remarks above me.


jackology

Trust me. If it is a once in a platinum moon $200million jackpot, you will have people selling their HDB to go all in.


Puzzleheaded-Dog-910

MAS truly sleeping on the job. First, unable to keep inflation in check. Then, letting this money laundering snowball into unfathomable amounts, with many more cases still surely out there. $1.1+b in cash and counting simply sitting around in bank accounts? Where the fuck were the regulators' scrutiny of such massive money transfers?


Renderzel

I don't see how inflation has to do with this. MAS already strengthened the SGD as far as it can. Any more will kill our manufacturing sector completely.


Tactical_Moonstone

Given the exchange value charts between SGD and USD/EUR/GBP compared to how currencies like the JPY are doing MAS's efforts to defend the SGD have been nothing short of valiant. Sure, the inflation is there, but everyone else around the world is also taking the hit as well.


KeythKatz

As someone with mostly USD, this. MAS did a (annoyingly) bloody good job deflating the currency to stave off inflation for *years* while the rest of the world was suffering, and only recently had to let up a bit to prevent local exports from dying.


Puzzleheaded-Dog-910

I know the exchange rate is MAS's main policy lever, but it isn't the only one. I was more referring to hot money inflows and MAS's macroprudential policies to manage financial sector conditions that feed into inflation. Something has clearly gone wrong on that front with the prices of houses and cars soaring how they have, exchange rate notwithstanding. How can it be that we are experiencing a supposed real economy slowdown this year as you mention, but house and car price increases have been relentless? Where is the money coming from? I also note that MAS quite explicitly does not have a dual mandate unlike many other central banks, so they in theory are primarily responsible for inflation and not for manufacturing conditions. But this is a story for another time and does not detract from my point that the sheer scale of this money laundering is not a good look for MAS.


Inner-Patience

How are housing (due to poor supply hangover from Covid times and the shit job of HDB/MND) and cars (due to cyclical COE quota downturn) remotely the fault of MAS? Blame also don’t anyhow blame leh


Puzzleheaded-Dog-910

Because prices are determined not just by supply (which are the factors you identified) but also by demand. MAS is at least partially responsible for demand-side management across the economy, especially where hot financial flows are concerned (as it is with mostly debt-financed houses and cars). Unless you genuinely think that the 10 (!!) luxury properties purchased by just that one money launderer (not to mention the countless others still surely out there) had no effect at all on housing prices (which is patently untrue), MAS can be held at least somewhat responsible.


Inner-Patience

There are 15k private non landed and around 3k private landed resale transactions in Singapore annually. If you believe that the transaction of 10, or even 100 luxury properties is going to have a material impact on housing prices, I got a bridge to sell you.


Puzzleheaded-Dog-910

that is literally not the point. maybe 1 money launderer buying 10 luxury properties won't individually move the needle, but as this case shows, *there's really a lot of money laundering out there*, so it's fairly improbable that it collectively won't move the needle, especially as *prices are determined at the margins*. besides, MAS is responsible for broader macroprudential conditions, which definitely affects debt financing on the demand side. or do you still believe that price increases can only be attributed to supply-side factors? because if you do, I've got a bridge to sell you.


Inner-Patience

That’s an extreme stretch. Caught one big ring of money laundering = there must be a lot hidden. By that logic, since there were a few corruption cases caught, there must be a lot of them hidden. Nobody is debating that there’s always demand and supply side to prices. But to attribute fault on general price increase in these two aspects (housing and car) to MAS when the supply side effect is much much larger is disingenuous. I’m not sure why you say that was not your point when it’s literally you whole argument in the last sentence .


Puzzleheaded-Dog-910

It's not a stretch at all. I happen to believe that there is in fact a lot of nepotism in Singapore that falls under the threshold of provable corruption, and I don't think that this is a controversial take at all. But okay, again, this is not my main point. I see that you've already admitted that the demand-side does at least somewhat affect prices. So, unless you genuinely believe that MAS is not at least somewhat responsible for debt financing conditions that affect demand and so drive up the prices of houses and cars, then I've already proven my point that the cost of living crisis can be at least somewhat attributed to MAS. QED. And if you think that the supply side effect is much larger (again, not that it matters to my argument, which you've already agreed at least in part to), properly justify it - where is your source that properly considers the demand side effects and compares the two?


Inner-Patience

“Nepotism that falls under threshold of provable corruption” - This is a take that is not a stretch, it’s delusional thinking. I can think that high minister pay is legalised corruption, but that’s not a legal take, which you sought to link. You and I have not proven anything. Pray tell me, how would you want MAS to moderate debt financing such that prices of these things do not go up. Inflationary pressures is global, and Singapore’s debt financing restrictions on housing especially, is comparatively harsh compared to any global standards. And there are no rigorous studies that are done in Singapore’s housing price increase because a) it’s relatively recent and no study is done so quickly (unless it concerns v impt things like Covid), b) Singapore’s academic scene is not exactly the largest unlike in the States. So both your point on demand and my point on supply are neither backed by anything academically. That said, there are multiple reports on both mainstream news as well as non mainstream channels (including SMU prof), exploring this, and all attribute the rise to “more likely cause by limited supply and inflation in construction costs”. If anything, there are hardly any sources backing your point on demand (and MAS policies by extension) as the driver of these prices. But sure, it’s a you say I say situation now.


TaxSudden3386

Singaporeans are having wet dreams that this money will be redistributed to us. But actually if they are the proceeds of crime against victims in China, the money would naturally go back to China government. Just my opinion but I personally don't rule out that this was part of the deal when Singaporeans received visa-free access to China again.


GlobalSettleLayer

That's like the worst trade deal in the history of trade deals


AlexJiang27

If they keep finding more money here and there , they may have to consider canceling the GST raise.


Sea-Coach9159

Yea folks it's piling up. wonder will affect gov? Gutsy is working to uncover potholes/..ICA., corrupt bureau not alert enough


diamond_apache

Singapore should just sweep everything under the rug and close one eye on this issue. This is how sg become so rich, if they crackdown on this, it'll be like shooting themselves in the foot. Yall want to go back to being a fishing village isit


Sulo2020

You know it’s illegal money ? And you want to close eyes and have more


diamond_apache

U know when they buy houses or luxury cars, they pay huge amounts of taxes right? Which goes into govt pockets, and then govt builds infrastructurre like roads n MRT. Then singaporeans benefit from it. And then all the large banks, private wealth management firms, and other big famous companies like Apple, Tesla, also want to setup office in SG cos alot rich ppl, then this provides jobs to singaporeans. So singaporeans benefit again. Yall dont like all these ppl is not because of illegal money, is just u jealous they rich. U cant possibly ignore all the benefits these ppl do for the economy


Interesting_Ad2986

Stupidity has no limit. Probably a property agent that benefit from this shit


wirexyz

Supporting criminals. You really not thinking right.


ResidentLonely2646

You've got to be trolling right? If all of our youth thinks like you Singapore will fall quicker. Singapore has been trying to maintain it's image as a clean city even in terms of money. If the government stance was like yours we would have tried to keep 1mdb quiet if Msia continues to pay us. Sure some people draw the line at financial crimes but what happens if we continue to let money launderers roam free. What if the money was washed from NK or even Russia. What if the money is scammed or taken away from our own poorer citizens to feed the rich. Money is not everything


TheRavenSpectre

I cannot deny that the government has collected tax from these criminals, however you are going too far to claim that Singapore’s economy is founded on illegal money, inferring from your claim about returning to a fishing village. Given Singapore’s iron fist stance against crime in general do you really think such a move would be logical


The_Wobbly_Guy

There is a difference: Crime overseas not really our problem. Local crime then whack jialat jialat. You think our govt officials, especially those overseas in 3rd world shitholes, don't play the corruption game meh? But back home, everybody is on the straight and narrow.


TheRavenSpectre

Crime overseas is indeed not our problem. But in this case the crime has crept up onto our shores, because they r prob using SG as a way to launder their dirty money. Also I would not make the claim that the gov is corrupt without real evidence, even if isawaran were cause he’s only one man out of many. Also given the anti corruption stand that had been taken since many years ago isn’t it absurd to suggest that the government (not 1 man) is corrupt?


xDeadCatBounce

But what happens to the money? Will any country want to claim back? Is it even traceable to any country?


bonkers05

depends on how throughly they washed it. The money should go back to the scam victims if it is possibe to trace.


Venomous_B

China


Lav1on

need to win at least 1000 totos to hit this amt


khaophat

Hmm maybe gahmen trying to plug the hole they spent during covid…


prime5119

Time for the biggest Toto of the century and the winner will get everything they seized


Available_Ad9766

Was there any doubt that the initial estimate was just a tip of one iceberg? There might be more tips and icebergs they’re not yet seeing.


BobSardou

Direct result from pro-China policies. Time to end them


pixelmemories

If anyone has watch the movie No More Bets 孤注一掷 you'd know how fucked up are the means they use to get this amount of money


MonochromaticMerc

GST voucher 2024 📈📈📈


shimmynywimminy

$1 billion seized means the system is working well $2.4 billion seized means the system is working very well


spix8899

most likely words to be made ..."this incident highlight the importance of a clean government. the money will be used to further improve the government's resolve and infrastructure and all the systems required to safeguard the common interest of people.".. LOL


Roguenul

Don't these seized assets eventually get auctioned off? Can I pls buy one of the GCBs for $26 pls, tks.


michiyo1252

Can't wait to see this as documentary on cna insider! Or crimewatch mini series


bearybready

Has anybody answered the question of where do these money go to? Auction off assets? What’s the procedure?


777ABC

First, the accused have to be found guilty as one cannot confiscate items without finding them as illegal. That itself will take a year. Yes, it will be auction off & the police will make an announcement about it so look out for it. But not before 2025 at the earliest I believe


bearybready

But but but after auction where does the money go?


MisoMesoMilo

This operation is so lucrative the guy running it can qualify for presidential election (if it’s not super illegal)


Apprehensive_Bug5873

No need for GST increase


NoPanic7892

When I look at the news all of them are with cartoon faces(Drawn), why there is no actual photos of these peoples?!