Ex-Citi Banker Jailed Longest in Singapore Laundering Case
(Bloomberg) — A former wealth banker at Citigroup Inc. got the longest sentence in Singapore’s biggest money laundering case for his role in aiding the movement of illicit funds and obstructing justice.
Wang Qiming, a former relationship manager at Citibank Singapore, was sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to four out of 10 charges on Thursday. That’s a harsher jail term than the punishments meted out to the 10 convicted money launderers in the S$3 billion ($2.3 billion) scandal.
Wang is the first banker to be sentenced in the case, which has raised questions about the risks of Singapore’s ambition to attract some of the world’s richest and the city’s safeguards against dirty money flows. Former Julius Baer Group Ltd. banker Liu Kai, 36, faces one charge and is scheduled to plead guilty on Friday. The two men are the only financial professionals charged in connection with the money laundering scandal.
Deputy public prosecutor Louis Ngia argued for a sentence of as long as 30 months for Wang. Defense lawyer Vinit Chhabra sought up to 11 months and indicated Wang plans to appeal the sentence.
Ngia argued that Wang, 28, actively forged supporting documents and “flagrantly breached” his duties. Chhabra said Wang did not personally benefit from the laundered funds and that Citibank suffered no direct loss.
Still, Citibank suffered reputational harm from Wang’s actions, District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt said. “This was not the case of an accused simply looking away or failing to ask the right questions,” the judge said. Wang “proactively and deliberately distorted and disguised the source of funds.”
Citigroup declined to comment. Liu’s lawyers couldn’t be reached for comment. “This is a third-party matter and the individual named left the bank in 2022,” according to a spokesperson for Julius Baer.
Singapore convicted and sentenced 10 individuals originally from the southern Chinese province of Fujian to jail terms ranging from 13 months to 17 months for their roles in the money laundering case. They were deported after serving time. The case dominated headlines for the billions of dollars parked in real estate, luxury goods, cash and cryptocurrency and derived from ill-gotten gains in illegal gambling and unlicensed money lending in China.
“Today’s sentencing should not be seen as signifying that money launderers are treated by the law as being less culpable than those who facilitate such crimes,” said Eugene Tan, an associate professor of law at the Singapore Management University. “In the money launderers’ case, there was a plea bargain of sorts: pleading guilty and disgorging their proceeds of crime as a quid pro quo for a shorter jail sentence.”
‘Difficulty Going Anywhere’
Wang, also known as Jimmy, was accused of forging transaction documents to cheat Citibank in deposits totaling more than S$8.5 million and benefited financially. He also allegedly obstructed justice by deleting the Whatsapp messaging app from his phone.
His lawyer said Wang only received a “small commission” of between S$700 to S$800 each for transactions such as which were typically investments. Wang helped Citibank open about 108 accounts, with only a handful implicated in the charges, Chhabra argued.
The former Citibank relationship manager assisted one of the convicted launderers Su Baolin in opening a Citibank account and handling his illicit cash as Wang’s father was acquainted with Su via an old classmate, his lawyer said. Su also had an existing account with Standard Chartered Plc in Singapore, which had independently verified Su’s source of wealth, Chhabra said.
Standard Chartered did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
“At his young age, he is going to have difficulty going anywhere after that,” Chhabra said. Wang has lost his place to further his postgraduate studies in Cambridge University and will be repatriated to China after his sentence, he added.
The convicted money launderers and their close associates, together with companies they controlled, held more than S$370 million at more than a dozen financial institutions, court records compiled earlier by Bloomberg show. Singapore’s financial regulator earlier this year punished nine financial firms including the local units of Citigroup and Julius Baer for lapses linked to the case, with the banks pledging to fix the deficiencies.
–With assistance from Anshuman Daga.
(Updates from second paragraph with more details from hearing.)
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