Chinese national Lin Baoying, 44, now faces 10 charges, including one charge of perverting the course of justice. - PHOTO: COURT DOCUMENTS
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The sole woman accused in the S$3 billion (RM10.5 billion) money laundering case was handed seven new charges on May 21, including for using forged documents and possessing benefits of criminal conduct.
Chinese national Lin Baoying, 44, now faces 10 charges, including one of perverting the course of justice.
Her lawyer Chew Kei-Jin told the court that he will be seeking a date for her to plead guilty.
When this was translated to Lin in Mandarin, she replied: “Yes, I hope it can be an early date.”
Aside from the seven new charges, two forgery charges handed to her in August 2023 were amended to using a forged document as a genuine one.
She was among 10 foreigners arrested that month following an islandwide raid led by the Commercial Affairs Department over what would turn out to be Singapore’s largest money laundering case.
On May 21, she was handed one new charge of forgery, two charges of using forged documents and four charges of possessing benefits of criminal conduct.
According to court documents, Lin allegedly engaged in a conspiracy with one Liu Kai and one Li Hongmin to commit forgery to cheat Bank Julius Baer & Co on or before Nov 24, 2020.
Separately, Lin allegedly submitted a forged document – purportedly an agreement for the sale of a property in Macau – to UOB Kay Hian, to justify a deposit of HK$7.5 million (S$1.2 million) into her account.
She also allegedly submitted a forged document, which she claimed was a loan agreement, to OCBC Bank to justify a deposit of HK$5 million into her account.
The other four new charges state that Lin allegedly possessed HK$209 million, which represented benefits of criminal conduct.
Aside from her seven new charges, the two forgery charges handed to her in August 2023 were amended to using a forged document as a genuine one. - PHOTO: COURT DOCUMENTS
She has had more than S$215 million in assets seized or frozen by the authorities.
This money laundering case has seen the seizure of assets, including luxury homes, cars, watches and bags, worth over $3 billion.
It was revealed in earlier court proceedings that Lin and one of those arrested in the raid, Zhang Ruijin, 45, were lovers and that they have known each other for more than a decade.
They were arrested in a bungalow on Pearl Island in Sentosa Cove.
Before her arrest, Lin lived on Sentosa with Zhang, while her 15-year-old daughter lived with a maid in Beach Road.
Lin calls Zhang her husband, though they are not officially married.
But in Zhang’s first court appearance the day after his arrest, he referred to Lin and said: “You can separate her crimes from me, we are just lovers... You can bail me out, but remand her.”
On April 30, he was sentenced to 15 months’ jail, the highest jail term meted out in the case so far. He pleaded guilty to one money laundering charge and two forgery charges.
Five others have been convicted. Su Wenqiang, Wang Baosen, Vang Shuiming, Su Haijin and Su Baolin were each jailed between 13 and 14 months.
The six men who were dealt with have each agreed to forfeit between $5.9 million and $180 million in assets to the state.
So far, over S$541.9 million in assets has been forfeited by them.
Su Wenqiang and Wang were deported to Cambodia on May 6 after serving about 8½ months of their 13-month jail term.
Two more accused in the case are set to plead guilty soon.
Cambodian national Chen Qingyuan, who faces 10 charges, is expected to do so on May 23.
Cypriot national Wang Dehai is expected to plead guilty on June 13. He faces two money laundering charges. - The Straits Times/ANN
