Ex-No Signboard director among those rounded up in billion-dollar money-laundering raid
Yong Hui Ting &
Yong Jun Yuan
SU HAIJIN, a 40-year-old Cypriot national charged in court on Wednesday (Aug 16) with one count of resisting lawful apprehension, is understood to be a former non-executive director of Catalist-listed No Signboard Holdings.
The company’s latest annual report, filed last September, lists a Su Haijin as holding a 20-per-cent stake in the company.
He resigned in June last year due to “current and future business and other commitments which would make it difficult for him to continue devoting the time and commitment required as a non-executive director of the company”, No Signboard said in a bourse filing at the time.
This was less than a year after his October 2021 appointment as a non-executive director in the company.
No Signboard told The Business Times (BT) on Wednesday that it has not kept in contact with the former director.
In August 2021, BT had reported that a Cypriot citizen by the name of Su Haijin had bought a pair of adjacent bungalows in Sentosa Cove for a total of S$36.37 million, or S$1,941 per square foot.
The two properties used to belong to the family of Tony Phua, chairman of furniture retailer Da Vinci Collection.
On Wednesday, Su appeared in court via video-link from hospital, where he is being treated for fractures in his hands and legs. He is said to have jumped out of the second-floor balcony of a bungalow and hidden in a drain before he was found by the police, who were conducting a large-scale anti-money laundering operation.
The raid, carried out in several Good-Class Bungalows and high-end condominiums simultaneously, ended with the seizure of about S$1 billion in cash and assets from a group of foreign nationals.
Ten people were charged on Wednesday for suspected involvement in offences including forgery and money laundering. Another 12 are assisting in investigations, and eight other individuals are on the run.
BT also found, from a copy of the Sentosa Golf Club magazine, that a Su Haijin was registered as a club member between April and July 2021.
Three other members, whose names matched those who were charged with money laundering and fraud offences, were also listed as new members of the golf club between August and September 2021.
