Billion-dollar money laundering case: Woman gets 15 months' jail, forfeits S$154 million in seized assets
Lin Baoying, the only woman among the 10 people charged, pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraudulently using a forged document.
Lin Baoying, charged over the billion-dollar money laundering case in Singapore. (Illustration: Rafa Estrada)
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SINGAPORE: Lin Baoying, the only woman among 10 suspects in Singapore's multibillion-dollar money laundering crackdown, was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Thursday (May 30).
The 44-year-old Chinese national pleaded guilty to three out of 10 charges, with the remainder considered for sentencing.
She was convicted on one count of money laundering and two counts of fraudulently using a forged document.
Lin was the eighth suspect to be dealt with in the case. The 10 individuals were arrested during a simultaneous raid on Aug 15, 2023.Â
The court ordered the forfeiture of about S$154 million of Lin's seized assets. This makes up around 90 per cent of the S$170.5 million worth of assets in relation to Lin and her companies.
The assets included cash from 13 bank accounts, five properties, cryptocurrencies, two cars and memberships at two country clubs in Singapore.
Seized assets
When Lin was arrested in August 2023, police seized a range of assets, such as properties, bank accounts and cryptocurrencies.Â
These assets were worth almost S$170.6 million. Some of assets include:
Thirteen bank accounts - from Citibank Singapore, DBS Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and RHB Bank. These accounts held a mix of local and other foreign currencies. The largest account held about HK$75.6 million (S$13.1 million).
The police also seized about S$13.6 million in physical cash.
Five properties were seized: Two houses at Sentosa Cove, apartments at Beach Road and Grange Roa and an Amoy Street shophouse worth almost S$30 million. According to court documents, Lin paid S$13.5 million and S$15.5 million for the two Sentosa Cove houses.
Two cars - a green Rolls-Royce Dawn Black Badge worth about $1.6 million and a white Toyota Alphard Elegance MR worth S$215,000 - were also seized.
Lin also held a mix of cryptocurrencies:
| Cryptocurrency | Quantity | Estimated value at time of seizure on Aug 19, 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Tether | 51,952.366902 | S$70,635.73 |
| Ethereum | 340.674701584804 | S$768,317.25 |
| Dogecoin | 0.81871782 | S$0.07 |
| TRON | 307.540117 | S$30.84 |
| Bitcoin | 29.96933446 | S$1,054,171.33 |
Other seized assets include:
- Memberships at Tanah Merah Country Club and Sentosa Golf Club worth a total of S$745,300
- One AIA insurance policy worth about S$178,000
- Five luxury watches
- 42 luxury bags
- 29 jewellery pieces
- 19 Bearbrick figurines
In determining the proposed sentence for Lin, the prosecution referred to the four people before her - Su Haijin, Su Wenqiang, Wang Baosen, and Zhang Ruijin - who were handed jail terms of between 12 and 14 months.
The prosecution, represented by Deputy Public Prosecutors Nicholas Tan, Ryan Lim and Gan Ee Kiat, argued for Lin to be jailed for between 15 and 17 months.
Lin’s partner, Zhang, 45, was sentenced to 15 months’ jail after pleading guilty to three charges in April for his role in the operation.
FORGED DOCUMENTS
Between April 2020 and October 2020, Lin submitted forged documents to various financial institutions in Singapore, in response to their queries on the source of her funds.
This included submitting two forged agreements to CIMB Bank and UOB Kay Hian (UOBKH) to show that Lin's source of funds derived from the sale of two Macao properties allegedly owned by her, even though she never owned such properties.
Investigations also revealed that Lin was suspected to have run an unlicensed and unlawful gambling operation overseas between 2015 and 2019, and had transferred the proceeds into Singapore.
But she was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for how HK$7.5 million was deposited into her UOBKH account, which she had initially falsely represented to the bank as being proceeds from the sale of the Macao property allegedly owned by her.
Lin was unable to substantiate with documentary evidence the claim that the money came from legitimate sources of income such as her businesses.
For fraudulently using as genuine a document which Lin knew to be a forged document, she could have been jailed for up to four years, fined, or both.
For the offence of money laundering, Lin could have been fined up to S$150,000, jailed a maximum of three years, or both.
