Duo to be charged after corporate bank accounts allegedly used to launder scam proceeds

SINGAPORE – A Russian man and a Singaporean woman are set to be charged on Oct 9 over their alleged involvement in activities surrounding the use of corporate bank accounts to launder scam proceeds.

The man, 35, had provided corporate secretarial services to local and foreign clients in 2020 and 2021 through a firm he owned here, the police said in a statement on Oct 8.

He recruited two people to serve as directors for two companies, and allegedly told them that they do not need to have any supervisory oversight over the companies or their bank accounts.

One of the two was asked to open a corporate bank account and the other was told to give up control of a corporate bank account.

The Russian man also recruited the woman, 42, to be a local director of several companies.

She then opened a bank account, and took control of other accounts of two companies for which she was appointed a director, the police said.

Investigations revealed that the man later conspired with her to allow unidentified people to control these two bank accounts, the police added.

Between March and June 2021, one of the accounts received more than $300,000 in various currencies from fraud and investment scams targeting foreign victims, according to the police.

She could not satisfactorily account for the funds when questioned by the police.

Another bank account controlled by the woman received almost US$164,000 (S$210,000) in November 2021, in investment scam proceeds from a foreign victim, the police said.

“Investigations established that the man and woman had reasonable grounds to believe they were involved in an arrangement facilitating the retention or control of benefits from criminal conduct on behalf of unknown persons,” the police added.

Also, the woman allegedly cashed a cheque for $430,700 on Dec 23, 2020, and gave the cash to an unknown associate of the Russian man, after a transfer of the same amount to a third company linked to the woman failed.

The monies were traced to a fraud perpetrated against an overseas company, the police said.

The man is slated to face 14 charges in total, including abetting local directors of companies to not exercise reasonable diligence in exercising their duties.

The woman is expected to face eight charges in total, including transferring property reasonably suspected to be benefits of criminal conduct.

The police advised the public to be careful about taking on directorships in companies they have no knowledge of.

They should also be cautious of opening corporate bank accounts and passing the control of these accounts to unknown third parties, or to receive payment in exchange for lending their names and identities to facilitate such arrangements.