Credit Suisse, UOB, Citi & others penalised over S$27 million over S'pore's largest money laundering case

Nine financial institutions were handed S$27.45 million in financial penalties over breaches related to Singapore's largest money laundering case.

The August 2023 case saw 10 foreigners arrested and close to S$3 billion in assets seized.

In a Jul. 4, 2025 statement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that it had completed its supervisory examinations against the financial institutions and several of their employees.

All offending parties failed to detect or adequately follow up on "significant discrepancies or red flags" in customers' documents, which indicated increased risk of money laundering.

Eight of them, with the only exception being Trident Trust Company, also failed to adequately review relevant transactions that their systems flagged as suspicious.

These transactions were either unusually large, inconsistent with the customers' profiles, or showed unusual patterns.

Financial institutions

Credit Suisse (Singapore Branch) and UOB were handed the largest penalties, with S$5.8 million and S$5.6 million each.

This was followed by UBS AG (Singapore Branch), which was penalised S$3 million, and Citibank N.A. Singapore and Citibank Singapore (or Citi), with S$2.6 million.

Brokerage UOB Kay Hian was also hit with a S$2.85 million penalty.

MAS said that from its investigations, most of the institutions had established policies and protocols against money laundering and financial terrorism.

But implementation was poor or inconsistent, leading to the breaches.

The institutions have since begun remediation efforts and MAS will monitor their progress closely.

Individuals

Apart from the institutions, several individuals were also issued with prohibition orders, ranging from three to six years in duration.

This means that they will be unable to carry out any activity or business, or provide any service, that is regulated or authorised by MAS.

They will also be unable to directly or indirectly take on a management, directorship, or partnership role at any financial institution.

All four implicated people were members of the senior leadership at Blue Ocean Invest Pte Ltd.

Chief executive officer Tsao Chung-Yi and chief operating officer Wong Xuan Ling failed as senior managers to ensure that relevant policies and controls kept pace with its growth, MAS said.

All four leaders also failed to raise red flags, when they were aware of information that should have raised suspicion.

Additionally, five individuals — three senior managers from Trident Trust, and two from UOB — were reprimanded for multiple lapses.

Another nine relationship managers, and relationship manager supervisors, were privately reprimanded for more limited lapses.

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