Man used over $1.5b in criminal proceeds to buy gold bars, hid them in tools and exported them

Between 2014 and 2017, a South Korean man received cash totaling more than $1.5 billion — proceeds of a foreign crime — from outside Singapore and used the money to buy nearly 28,000 gold bars.

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

Details of this overseas crime were not disclosed in court documents, but Kim Taek Hoon, 64, later sent out 505 shipments containing more than 23,500 gold bars, hidden inside tools, to South Korea and Japan.

Deputy public prosecutors David Koh and Wong Shiau Yin stated in court documents: "For close to four years, the accused played a pivotal role in a clandestine scheme which abused Singapore's status as a commercial import and export hub.

"As part of this scheme, the accused perpetrated a persistent fraud (against Singapore Customs) to successfully export about $1.5 billion worth of gold bars out of Singapore, concealed in shipments of mechanical tools."

On Sept 4, Kim, who received around $1 million for his involvement in the scheme, pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating — one involving Singapore Customs and two linked to logistics service providers, Pantos Logistics and Cosmo SCM.

He also pleaded guilty to one count each of money laundering and receiving over $20,000 in cash from overseas without alerting the authorities. Sixteen other charges will be considered during his sentencing.

Court documents stated that around 1998, Kim got to know a man known as Cha Young Soo while they were both jailed in South Korea for undisclosed offenses.