Additionally, government agencies such as the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) and Singapore Customs will also be allowed to share tax and trade data respectively, with the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office – Singapore’s financial intelligence unit.
Mrs Teo pointed out that jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Korea have similar tax data-sharing arrangements.
Likewise, Hong Kong, the United States and Luxembourg share trade data with their customs agencies, she added.
Additionally, the Bill will also make it easier to effectively tackle money laundering offences. The prosecution will no longer need to prove that money allegedly laundered in Singapore was benefits from criminal conduct or show the complete trail.
It will be sufficient to prove that the money launderer knew or had “reasonable grounds” to believe the property they were dealing with was gains from criminal conduct.
Lastly, foreign environmental crimes will also be designated as money laundering predicate offences.
Environmental crimes such as illegal mining, illegal waste trafficking and illegal logging are “not applicable in our domestic context” and thus not considered serious offences in Singapore, said Mrs Teo.
Hence, with the designation, law enforcement agencies can now investigate money laundering offences if it is suspected that the money in Singapore is derived from such serious environmental crimes committed overseas.
WHY IT MATTERS
Mrs Teo said Singapore has a “comprehensive” regime to tackle money laundering crimes, but the landscape “does not stay static and new risks emerge regularly”.
Money launderers are finding many new ways to evade detection by, for example, taking advantage of technological innovations meant for legitimate financial and business transactions.
Enhancements have also been made to global standards against money laundering, such as those set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog, she noted.
Mrs Teo added that there are “useful lessons” from each new money laundering case uncovered in Singapore or around the world.
This included Singapore’s largest money laundering case that saw 10 foreign nationals nabbed in an islandwide blitz last year. Assets that were seized or issued with prohibition of disposal orders have ballooned to S$3 billion.
“We have been distilling the learning points through careful studies of the changing modus operandi, as well as the new standards promulgated by FATF,” said Mrs Teo.
The Bill and its proposed amendments will ensure that “Singapore’s regime keeps pace with evolving standards and trends”.