SINGAPORE – A man who held multiple directorships, secretarial and shareholder positions in 185 firms has had his registration as a qualified individual (RQI) cancelled by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra).
On Jan 19, Acra said the registrations of filing agent (RFA) LW Business Consultancy (LWBC), and Wang Junjie as an RQI had been cancelled on Jan 18.
Acra said its investigations are part of the ongoing money laundering probe here.
At least $2.8b in cash and assets have been seized in Singapore’s largest money laundering case.
Acra said Wang Junjie is the RQI and director of LWBC.
The registrations were cancelled in view of breaches of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls under the Acra (Filing Agents and Qualified Individuals) Regulations 2015.
Acra said one of the AML/CFT breaches committed by LWBC included failing to perform additional customer due diligence measures when a customer is not physically present during the onboarding process.
Other breaches included not inquiring if there were other beneficial owners linked to his clients, and failing to perform risk assessments on some of his customers.
In its statement, Acra said: “Wang, as the RQI and director of LWBC, also did not supervise his employees in carrying out their duties, which resulted in the breaches. Accordingly, Acra determined that Wang no longer met the fit and proper criteria to remain registered as an RQI, and Wang’s registration as an RQI was consequently cancelled.”
Acra said RQIs and RFAs provide corporate secretarial services for business entities, such as helping customers to incorporate companies, file annual returns and other filing requirements under the Companies Act 1967 or other Acts under Acra’s purview.
RQIs and RFAs must perform customer due diligence measures and guard against breaches in AML/CFT.
Those who commit breaches can be fined up to $10,000, or $25,000 per breach respectively or have their registrations with Acra suspended or cancelled.
Acra said it has planned additional measures, including enhancing the penalties on errant service providers, to strengthen the effectiveness of Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime.
It is working with the Ministry of Finance to table the proposals in Parliament in the coming months.
Acra said RQIs and RFAs play an important role in helping to detect and combat illicit activities.