SINGAPORE — The man who was last among the 10 suspects in the $3 billion money laundering case to indicate he wanted to plead guilty was on June 6 convicted of money laundering and forgery.

Vanuatu national Su Jianfeng, who pleaded guilty to two charges, has agreed to forfeit $178.9 million of his seized assets to the state.

Another 12 charges will be taken into consideration for his sentencing on June 10.

Su is the ninth person to be convicted in Singapore's biggest money laundering case. His forfeited assets represent 95.5 per cent of the assets seized from him and his wife Chen Qiuyan.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Teo said Su was involved in an illegal online gambling business based in the Philippines. He profited from helping with advertising, as well as managing the workers operating gambling websites that targeted punters in China.

The prosecution said Su joined the operation some time in 2013, initially working from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia before moving to Manila in the Philippines.

He moved to Singapore in August 2020 as he wanted his children to study here, said DPP Teo.

Su's money laundering charge pertains to him possessing $550,903 in cash believed to be illicit benefits from his gambling offences. The cash was seized from a safe in his bedroom when he was arrested in August 2023.

As for the forgery charge, DPP Teo said Su had forged a property sale contract in March 2021 when he was asked by Maybank Singapore to explain the source of two deposits made into his account worth $1,029,970 and $969,970, respectively.

The forged document indicated he had sold a property around the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Seeking 17 to 18 months' jail, DPP Edwin Soh said Su had laundered a total of $17.5 million in Singapore, which shows he is "not a small-time money launderer".

He added that Su should not be given the full 30 per cent discount in sentencing for pleading guilty, as opposed to claiming trial, because he opted to do so only on May 24 after seeing the sentences meted out to the other eight offenders.

Su indicated that he wanted to plead guilty about four months after the first accused person in the case did so.

DPP Soh said: "This shows that the accused did not plead guilty and agree to forfeit his assets at the earliest opportunity as a true sign of contrition and remorse.

"He only did so after ascertaining that this course of action would lead to his timeous release from prison."

DPP Soh added that because of the lateness of Su's plea of guilt, considerable public resources were spent on his case.

This included the prosecution preparing a reply affidavit to an application Su and his wife had filed on April 9 for the release of at least $36,146 of their seized assets for their basic expenses. The application was withdrawn on May 23.

Su informed the court on May 6 that he wanted to contest his charges, and the prosecution was told to review evidence to decide which charges it wanted to proceed on for the trial. Su later changed his mind about claiming trial.

Senior counsel N. Sreenivasan sought 14 to 15 months' jail for his client, saying Su forfeited more than 10 times the amount of money involved in his eight money laundering charges.

On Su being the last of the 10 foreigners to enter his plea, the lawyer said this should not be held against his client as the prosecution was not ready for the plea to be taken for more than nine months since Su's arrest.

Mr Sreenivasan pointed out that Su pleaded guilty within three weeks of receiving six forgery charges on May 16.

As for Su's involvement in illegal gambling operations, the lawyer said his client was not involved in any decision-making and acted on the instructions of his principal.

"His role was mainly to support the workers operating and maintaining the online remote gambling websites by providing daily requirements," Sreenivasan added.

The lawyer said Su's forgery offence did not result in any individual or entity suffering revenue loss, adding that the document he forged was not one issued by a public authority.

More than $891 million in assets have been forfeited by the nine convicted foreigners so far.

Su Wenqiang, Su Haijin, Su Baolin, Wang Baosen, Vang Shuiming, Zhang Ruijin, Chen Qingyuan and Lin Baoying were sentenced to between 13 and 15 months' jail each.

Four of them — Su Wenqiang, Wang Baosen, Su Baolin and Su Haijin — were deported to Cambodia between May 6 and May 28.

Vang Shuiming was deported to Japan on June 1.

Wang Dehai, the last accused person in the case, is set to plead guilty on June 7.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.