(Corrects paragraph 6 after Monetary Authority of Singapore corrected its statement to say institutions had filed suspicious transaction reports “early on”, not since 2022)
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Singapore police have seized over S$150 million ($115.90 million) in assets tied to the Prince Group, a multinational network accused of running vast scam centre operations, the Straits Times newspaper reported on Friday.
The assets include six properties as well as bank accounts, securities accounts and cash tied to the network and the Cambodian businessman Chen Zhi in relation to money laundering and forgery offences, the police said on Friday.
The seizure came after Britain and the United States sanctioned the Southeast Asia-based network, which has been accused of operating large-scale online “scam centres” that used trafficked workers to defraud victims across the globe.
The police added that investigations into Chen and his associates commenced in 2024 after receiving intelligence from the Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office. None of them are currently in Singapore.
In a press release on Friday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that it is working with the police to follow up on the case involving the Prince Group.
It added that financial institutions had filed suspicious transaction reports “early on” and a number of suspicious accounts have been closed.
“This had averted larger sums from being held in our financial sector,” it said.
The British government said the centres, located in Cambodia, Myanmar and across the region, used fake job adverts to lure workers who were then forced to commit online fraud under threat of torture.
The U.S. Treasury Department said it had taken what it described as the largest action ever in Southeast Asia, targeting 146 people within the criminal organization.
In July, MAS penalised six banks and three other financial institutions in relation to the country’s biggest ever money laundering scandal in 2023.
The case involved more than S$3 billion in illicit assets seized after 10 foreigners were busted in a series of simultaneous raids in August 2023.
($1 = 1.2942 Singapore dollars)
(Reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; Editing by David Stanway)
