Reported by Jack Adamović Davies

At least two people arrested in Singapore last month for their alleged involvement in a billion-dollar Chinese money-laundering syndicate have ties to London real estate worth more than $56 million, company and land records reviewed by Radio Free Asia and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) reveal.

The previously unreported assets show for the first time the intercontinental reach of a network that Singapore police said in a statement is suspected of overseeing “overseas organized crime activities including scams and online gambling.”

All 10 of those arrested on Aug. 15 were born in China, but nine were granted Cambodian citizenship during the past five years, decrees from Cambodia’s Royal Gazette show. Several also hold Cypriot, Turkish and ni-Vanuatu passports, Singapore police said in a statement.

Spreading the wealth

Prosecutors in Singapore told the High Court last week that a third party was attempting to sell or transfer assetsbelieved to belong to Su outside of Singapore.

While the prosecutor did not identify the assets in question, RFA and OCCRP have learned that in December 2021, Su was the face of a £43.3 million ($54 million) deal to take over two adjoining properties in London’s Oxford Circus shopping district. 

The purchase was made by New Yihao Limited, a company Su Haijin is linked to in corporate records. The company is registered in Jersey, a U.K. crown dependency off the coast of France that serves as an offshore tax haven.

The properties, 283 Oxford Street and 11 Princes Street, back onto each other. The Oxford Street property hosts a multistory Footlocker shoe shop. The Princes Street building appears half abandoned and dilapidated, despite being a Grade 2-listed historical building, which means the owner is legally obliged to provide a level of upkeep.

Moving money

Just days before the Oxford Circus sale was settled, Lin Baoying, another suspect arrested in Singapore last month, purchased a penthouse-level apartment in a 65-story, luxury residential skyscraper in Canary Wharf, London’s premier financial district, for £1.78 million ($2.2 million), real estate records show.

Lin and her partner, Zhang Ruijin, were arrested together in the exclusive Pearl Island enclave at Singapore’s Sentosa Cove, with authorities confiscating $100 million in assets and cash from the pair, including bank accounts with a total balance of $16 million. Both have been charged with forging documents falsely indicating they had sold real estate in Macau to justify transfers into their accounts with Singaporean banks.

Read full report: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/cambodian-chinese-money-laundering-09132023085219.html/ampRFA