$3b Money Laundering Case: 9 Financial Institutions Hit with $27.45m in Penalties

Credit Suisse Receives the Highest Penalty of $5.8m; UOB, UBS and Citi Also Penalized

- David Sun and Angela Tan

Credit Suisse (Singapore Branch) and UOB were each handed more than $5 million in penalties for flouting anti-money laundering controls related to the $3 billion money laundering case in 2023.

They were among nine financial institutions (FIs) hit with $27.45 million in composition penalties by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

On July 4, MAS announced the penalties and said it also took action against 18 individuals who worked for the FIs at the time.

Credit Suisse, which was rescued and taken over by UBS in 2023, faced the highest penalty of $5.8 million. This also took into account its breaches from November 2017 to October 2023 in relation to accounts that the now-defunct Swiss bank maintained on behalf of certain US customers.

Its penalties will be collected from UBS.

UOB was next with penalties amounting to $5.6 million, and then UBS at $3 million.

The other FIs are brokerage UOB Kay Hian, asset manager Blue Ocean Invest, Citibank N.A. Singapore and Citibank Singapore – collectively known as Citi – and the Singapore branches of Julius Baer, LGT Bank as well as fund services firm Trident Trust Company.

MAS said the FIs did not adequately check on customers' sources of wealth, even though there were discrepancies in the documents they had provided.

In fact, eight of the nine FIs did not adequately investigate suspicious transactions flagged by their own systems.

Singapore's largest case of money laundering involving $3 billion in cash and assets saw 10 foreigners arrested in multiple islandwide raids here on Aug 15, 2023.

The nine men and one woman, who were originally from Fujian, China, were jailed, deported and barred from re-entering Singapore.

The group had dealings with several FIs here.

MAS took action against the FI staff involved in managing relationships with members of the gang.