News and Articles

First ever North Korean national extradited to U.S. for money laundering charges – Implications for professional firms with clients in cross-border business

First North Korean extradited to U.S. faces money laundering charges In March 2021, Mun Chol-myong, who has ties to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a North Korean intelligence agency that manages the state’s clandestine operations, was the first North Korean to be extradited...

The Importance of On-Going Monitoring

In Nov 2017, a veteran Managing Director lawyer with 15 years of experience in conveyancing work, and a Senior Marketing Director of an international real estate agent were both charged in the Singapore Courts for failing to report to the...

Veteran lawyer suspended for breaching Law Profession Act AML/CFT Rules – How to conduct customer due diligence?

A veteran lawyer of 18 years’ standing was suspended in late-Sep 2017, from practice for two years and fined $100,000 for professional misconduct in a case relating to anti-money laundering (AML). In what had started out “innocuously” as an incident...

Phone Scams and Anti-Money Laundering

In recent months, there have been an increase in phone scammers in Singapore . Such scammers would impersonate themselves as employees of DHL, DBS or Chinese authorities and claim that the victim has an illegal parcel held by the Chinese...

Management Oversight – Lessons Learnt from BSI AML Control Failures

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on 24 May 2016 that it has served BSI Bank Limited (BSI Bank) notice of intention to withdraw its status as a merchant bank in Singapore for serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements,...

Don’t Be a Corporate Money Mule

Abdul Ghani Tahir, a director of a company, was recently convicted to 2 years 3 months and barred from being a company director for 5 years, for his role in laundering $1.2 million of illicit funds. The full report of...