(From left) Zhang Ruijin, Chen Qingyuan and Lin Baoying were deported on June 15. PHOTOS: COURT DOCUMENTS via The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Three more individuals who were convicted and jailed over Singapore’s S$3 billion (RM10.4 billion) money laundering case have been deported to Cambodia.
On June 16, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) said in response to The Straits Times’ queries that Zhang Ruijin, Chen Qingyuan and Lin Baoying were deported on June 15.
All three are barred from re-entering Singapore, ICA added.
They were each sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment between April and May after pleading guilty to various money laundering- and forgery-related charges.
Zhang, 45, forfeited about $118 million of assets to the state, while his lover, Lin, 44 – the only female convict in the case – gave up around $154 million worth of assets. Chen, 34, forfeited around $21 million worth of assets.
Zhang is a Chinese national with a passport from Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Also a Chinese national, Lin holds passports from Cambodia, Dominica and Turkey, while Chen is a Cambodian national who holds passports from China and Dominica.
An ICA spokesman said in April that “the location of deportation is dependent on the admissibility of the foreigner based on his or her valid passport”.
This development means that eight out of the 10 foreigners convicted in the case have been deported.
On May 6, Cambodian nationals Su Wenqiang and Wang Baosen, both 32, were the first two men to be deported. They were deported to Cambodia after serving about 8½ months of their 13-month jail terms.
Cambodian national Su Baolin, 42, and Cypriot national Su Haijin, 41, were deported to Cambodia on May 25 and 28, respectively, while Turkish national Vang Shuiming, 43, was deported to Japan on June 1.
Su Baolin and Su Haijin were each sentenced to 14 months’ jail in April, while Vang was sentenced to 13 months and six weeks’ jail in May. The three men each served around 9½ months of their jail terms.
Their sentences were backdated to the date of their arrest on Aug 15, 2023. They were released following a one-third remission on their jail terms, meaning they each served about two-thirds of their sentences.
This leaves Wang Dehai and Su Jianfeng, who were sentenced to 16 months’ and 17 months’ jail respectively in June, as the remaining convicts in the case still in Singapore.
The 10 individuals were arrested in August 2023 when the police conducted simultaneous raids islandwide in a money laundering probe that saw more than $3 billion in assets seized.
An ICA spokesman said on June 2 that the convicts in the money laundering case were deported on the earliest possible flights upon completing their jail sentence.
The convicts were escorted directly from the prison to the airport for deportation and were not permitted to return to their residences to collect their belongings, added the spokesman.
ICA said its technology for immigration clearance at Singapore’s checkpoints enables it to detect deported individuals even if they attempt to re-enter Singapore using another identity or passport. - The Straits Times/ANN
