Gold bars disguised as power tools: Man charged with cheating, money laundering offences

SINGAPORE: A 63-year-old man was charged in court on Friday (Aug 23) with a slew of offences, including cheating, money laundering and failing to report movements of cash into Singapore.
South Korean Kim Taek Hoon faces a total of 21 charges. Nine of them are for cheating several logistics providers, another four are for cheating Singapore Customs as well as four counts of failing to fully and accurately declare over S$20,000 in cash brought into Singapore.
The remaining charges are for transferring the benefits of criminal conduct.
Kim was arrested in December last year after the police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) received information over his potential involvement in a scheme to purchase gold bars in Singapore and export them in concealed shipments to South Korea and Japan. 
An intelligence probe was conducted by CAD and in cooperation with goverment agencies like Singapore Customs and the Ministry of Law’s Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Division.
CAD’s Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office, working together with foreign counterparts, had detected possible smuggling activities via financial intelligence analysis of suspicious transaction reports, cash movement reports, and precious stones and precious metals dealers cash transaction reports.
“Investigations by the CAD revealed that between 2014 and 2017, Kim allegedly received smuggled cash from South Korea and Japan which were concealed in shipments of tools,” the police said.
“Kim had further allegedly failed to make the requisite declarations of the receipt of cash from overseas, despite each receipt of cash exceeding the prescribed value of S$20,000.”
It is a statutory requirement to declare the physical movement of any currency or bearer negotiable instruments into or out of Singapore if the total value exceeds S$20,000 (or its equivalent in foreign currency).
Since May, all travellers have had to also make such declarations online and within 72 hours of arriving at or departing Singapore’s checkpoints.
Kim allegedly used the cash to purchase gold bars in Singapore, before concealing them in shipments of air impact wrenches for export to South Korea and Japan through three logistics providers in Singapore.
Declarations were made that the shipments only contained air impact wrenches.
By doing so, Kim faces cheating charges for allegedly deceiving the logistics providers into processing the shipments and Singapore Customs into issuing cargo clearance permits for these shipments. 
“Singapore is a major transhipment centre and trade hub for the region with tonnes of cargo flowing through our air and sea ports,” CAD director David Chew said.
“This flow of trade is vital to our economy but transnational criminal syndicates will seek to abuse these large legitimate flows to conceal their laundering of illicit proceeds.”
Mr Chew thanked Interpol as well as CAD’s foreign counterparts for their assistance in this case.
“This case successfully demonstrates the importance of international cooperation in taking to task individuals who may be part of a bigger transnational criminal syndicate,” he added. 
CAD also noted that suspicious transaction reports, and precious stones and precious metals dealers cash transaction reports had been filed in a timely manner, contributing to the detection of the case.
If found guilty of money laundering, Kim could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined not more than S$500,000 or both.
He could be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both for cheating.
For failing to fully and accurately declare over S$20,000 in cash or bearable negotiable instruments – such as traveller’s cheques, money orders and postal orders – he can be jailed for up to three years, fined up to S$50,000 or both.