$3b money laundering case 466 luxury items and 58 gold bars handed over to Deloitte for liquidation

Professional services firm to start sale of assets upon Govt's approval of its proposals

- Andrew Wong

A total of 466 luxury items and 58 gold bars from the $3 billion money laundering case have been handed over by police to professional services firm Deloitte to manage and liquidate.

They include Patek Philippe and Richard Mille watches, multiple pieces of diamond-encrusted jewellery, and Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags. The gold bars weigh between 999g and 1kg each.

The items were among assets seized in an anti-money laundering operation that saw 10 foreigners arrested in multiple raids on Aug 15, 2023, and 17 other suspects flee Singapore amid the probe.

The police said they would progressively hand over all the remaining non-cash assets to Deloitte to manage and liquidate.

In total, the police seized or took control of around $1.25 billion in non-cash assets, including cars, properties, art, watches, jewellery, gold bars, handbags and bottles of alcohol, during investigations.

Some of the items, including 54 properties, were liquidated earlier in 2024.

The police incurred costs of $2.65 million in the 2023 and 2024 financial years to maintain and manage the assets, a spokesman told The Straits Times.

On Aug 12, the police said they had formally appointed Deloitte & Touche Financial Advisory Services for the management and liquidation of the remaining non-cash assets.

"To facilitate this, police are progressively handing over all remaining non-cash assets that have yet to be liquidated to Deloitte. Between Aug 11 and 12, police handed over 466 luxury goods items and 58 pieces of gold bars to Deloitte," said the police spokesman.