Brother of $3b money laundering convict jailed for a year, forfeits $10m Sentosa bungalow

The brother of Zhang Ruijin — one of 10 foreigners convicted in the $3 billion money laundering case — has been sentenced to 12 months' jail for possessing over $17 million in criminal proceeds.

Zhang Ruisheng, 54, was found guilty on Monday (Oct 19) and agreed to forfeit his property at Sentosa, 69 Cove Drive, valued at around $10 million.

He also surrendered his Toyota Vellfire, a high-end luxury multi-purpose vehicle valued at around $400,000, according to SgCarMart.

Ruisheng, a Chinese national, was in Singapore on a work pass under Golden Eagle Family Office as an "employment adviser".

Golden Eagle's directors were his younger brother Ruijin and Ruijin's wife, Lin Baoying, CNA reported. Both of them were involved in the $3 billion money laundering case in 2023.

According to court documents seen by AsiaOne, Ruisheng received around $17.6 million in his CIMB account across 11 transfers between August 2020 and September 2020.

He had claimed that these transfers originated from the sales of a Macau property to Beiyin Limited, which had netted him HK$87.7 million ($14.3 million), proving the transaction by sending in a forged sales and purchase agreement dated Aug 8, 2020 to CIMB bank.

To prove a personal loan of almost $6 million, the older brother then submitted a fake loan agreement dated March 23, 2020, between him and a company named Han Li Limited.

Ruisheng was supposedly to receive repayments for this loan across two tranches, within a year.

He then went on to purchase his Sentosa home at an eye-watering price of $10.4 million using money from the CIMB account.

The bank ultimately terminated his account in December 2020 —but not before Ruisheng withdrew the remaining $5 million to use as a deposit for another Sentosa Cove property under a third brother, The Straits Times reported.

Ruisheng's case had been put under scrutiny by the Commercial Affairs Department from August 2023 due to potential forgery offences for the documents he submitted in 2020.

This coincides with the arrest of the original 10 offenders in the $3 billion money laundering case on Aug 15, 2023.

Ruijin and his wife, Lin, were each sentenced to 15 months' jail before being deported to Cambodia in June 2024 after serving their sentences.

While Ruijin forfeited nearly $118 million worth of assets to the state in 2024, his wife surrendered around $154 million.

Singapore authorities seized over 200 properties across prime locations such as Orchard Road and Sentosa in connection to the $3 billion money laundering case.

Assets forfeited by the 10 offenders tied to the case amount to about $1 billion — the remaining $2 billion are tied to 17 suspects on the run, including the spouses of some of those arrested.

Among the 10, Su Baolin, Su Haijin, Su Wenqiang, Wang Baosen, Zhang Ruijin, Chen Qingyuan and Lin Baoying were all deported to Cambodia while Vang Shuiming was deported to Japan. Wang Dehai was deported to the UK.

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khooyihang@asiaone.com