SINGAPORE: Ten people were recently nabbed at Changi Airport for failing to declare that they were bringing in over S$20,000 (US$14,720) in cash into Singapore.
Since May, all travellers have had to make such declarations online and within 72 hours of arriving at or departing Singapore’s checkpoints.
Why the need to declare large amounts of cash?
One expert pointed to the “anonymity” offered by cash and the “obvious appeal” for those engaged in illegal activities.
“The larger the sum of cash involved, objectively the more suspicious it is,” said Associate Professor Sandra Booysen, director of the Centre for Banking and Finance Law at the National University of Singapore’s law faculty.
“We have more efficient and safer ways nowadays of keeping money and making payment.”
Associate Professor Razwana Begum Abdul Rahim, head of the public safety and security programme at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, told CNA that declarations help authorities track suspicious money flows and ensure that the funds are not being used for unlawful purposes.
These include money laundering, terrorism financing, fraud and tax evasion.
Mr Rajan Supramaniam, senior criminal lawyer at Regent Law, gave an example of a case he handled some years ago, where a female client had received over S$100,000 as part of drug transactions.
The money had been transferred from an account in Kuala Lumpur to her in Singapore. She withdrew the sum and made plans to head to Johor Bahru and hand it over to someone there.
She was eventually charged with money laundering and jailed.