One of the defendants in a money laundering case involving 3 billion Singapore dollars (equivalent to about 16 billion yuan at the exchange rate of 1 SGD to 5.31 CNY at the time of the incident) was arrested after arriving in Montenegro on a private plane. Wang Shuiming, suspected of operating an illegal online gambling platform, was apprehended.
Montenegro media "Vijesti" reported that Wang Shuiming, 44, involved in a 3 billion money laundering case in Singapore, was arrested by border police at Tivat Airport in Montenegro. He was also wanted by the police in our country.
The report stated that Montenegro police checked the passenger information of a private plane flying from the Maldives to Montenegro in the Interpol database and discovered Wang Shuiming on board with travel documents from Vanuatu.
The Montenegro Police Department stated that investigations revealed Wang Shuiming was operating gambling activities illegally through online platforms, using mobile apps and web platforms to lure Chinese citizens to participate in sports and other online gambling, illegally profiting substantially.
The local police noted that Montenegro has always been recognized as a country that conducts strict scrutiny on the entry of foreign nationals. The report did not disclose when local police arrested Wang Shuiming.
When involved in the money laundering case in Singapore, assets seized from Wang Shuiming were valued over 199 million yuan, including real estate, cars, luxury goods, and cash.
Initially, Wang Shuiming, a Turkish national, faced 22 charges, including 18 counts of forgery and four counts of violating anti-corruption, drug trafficking, and serious crime (confiscation of benefits) laws, making him the defendant with the most charges among the ten in the money laundering case.
On May 14, 2024, Wang Shuiming pleaded guilty and voluntarily surrendered about 180 million yuan of seized assets, the most among the co-defendants at that time. Subsequently, the Singapore National Court sentenced him to 13 months and six weeks in prison, and after serving his sentence, he was deported to Japan on June 1 of the same year.
In addition to being wanted by Chinese police for illegal online gambling, his brother Wang Shuiting is currently also wanted by the Singapore police.
The case shows that Wang Shuiming's Citibank account received about 229.99 million Hong Kong dollars (approximately 39.848768 million SGD) from Indonesia. When the bank requested proof of the source of funds, he submitted a forged China Merchants Bank statement as proof. In fact, he did not have an account with China Merchants Bank.
On August 15, 2023, the funds held in different bank accounts of Wang Shuiming were believed to be indirectly derived from criminal proceeds. He submitted forged accounts of three Chinese companies to the bank as proof of the source of funds. Wang Shuiming later admitted to investigators that he had forged the accounts and transferred the funds overseas.
Wang Shuiming and the other nine involved were arrested by the Singapore police in a large-scale operation on August 15, 2023, and were charged in court the next day, with all ten being denied bail.
Alice Leal Guo, a partner at Baofu Land Development Inc., and Zhang Ruigin, 46, were sentenced to 15 months in prison. The total value of assets seized from Zhang Ruigin was about 131 million yuan, including cash, real estate, vehicles, and cryptocurrencies, with about 90% of the assets confiscated, including two bungalows owned separately by him and his mother on Sentosa Pearl Island, valued at 16 million and 15.5 million yuan respectively.
The company's other shareholder, Lin Baoying, 44, Zhang Ruigin's girlfriend, served the same prison time. The assets frozen under Lin Baoying's name, including bank deposits, vehicles, real estate, and cryptocurrencies, were valued at about 170.5 million yuan, with 90% also confiscated by the Singapore government.
Also serving 15 months was 35-year-old Chen Qingyuan (middle).
The three were deported to Cambodia on June 1 of the same year after serving their sentences. Before them, Su Wenqiang and Wang Baosen, who were sentenced to 13 months in prison, were released on May 6 of the same year and deported back to Cambodia.
On July 16 of the same year, at Phnom Penh International Airport, Cambodian authorities deported Zhang Ruigin but refused to disclose his whereabouts. In addition to Cambodian nationality, Zhang Ruigin also held a passport from Saint Kitts and Nevis.
The Cambodian Immigration Department stated that upon receiving news of Zhang Ruigin's deportation to the country, they immediately launched an investigation and legally arrested Zhang Ruigin, deporting him on July 16 of the same year.
The ten arrested were denied bail, and two others were wanted, with the Singapore Police Force issuing red notices through Interpol for the two. In addition to those previously convicted and sentenced to prison, such as Su Wenqiang (33), Wang Baosen (33), Su Baolin (43), Su Haijin (42), and Wang Shuiming, all were deported after serving their sentences and banned from entering Singapore.
The last to be convicted and sentenced among the ten-member gang were Wang Dehai (35) and Su Jianfeng (37, pictured above), who were formally sentenced on June 6 and 7 of the same year, respectively, after pleading guilty in court. They were sentenced to 16 months and 17 months in prison, respectively, and deported to the UK and Cambodia.
On June 10 of the same year, the Singapore Police announced that assets seized from the ten defendants and orders prohibiting disposal issued by the court exceeded 1 billion yuan, with about 944 million yuan of assets ordered by the court to be confiscated. The police seized or issued prohibition orders on assets exceeding 3 billion yuan, which not only came from the ten defendants charged in court but also belonged to 17 others under investigation for the case.
This certainly won't be the final outcome for this group of people.
As for how Wang Shuiming ended up in the Maldives after being deported to Japan, and how he rented a private jet intending to transit or hide in Montenegro, no one knows. It seems that this boss still has ample cash flow, which is probably why the Montenegro government treasured catching him.
From the fact that even a little-known small country like Montenegro is eager to take action against Wang Shuiming, it is clear that both the underworld and the legitimate world are searching for this group of rats. The legitimate world, like the governments of Singapore and Montenegro, openly snatch, while the underworld will not hesitate to engage in a long-planned black-eating-black scenario. This is why Guo Huaping, who fled to Indonesia last September, was genuinely happy to meet Philippine officials after being caught.
