On July 8, 2026, Singapore charged three men and one woman—Seow Choon Pheng, Seow Choon Lien, Chu Tung Wu, and Tan Kui Moi, aged between 60 and 63—over their alleged involvement in a multinational money laundering scheme involving gold smuggling and fraudulent export VAT (Value Added Tax) refunds.

The accused reportedly operated three Singapore-registered companies: Macropac System, Megaspeed Services, and Seg Metallic Electronics Trading. These companies imported signal converters from two suppliers controlled by a criminal syndicate in China. Under the scheme, gold was hidden inside these signal converters, which were declared to Chinese authorities as high-tech products and exported to Singapore at inflated prices. This enabled the syndicate to fraudulently claim export VAT refunds in China.

Upon arrival in Singapore, the signal converters were dismantled to extract and sell the gold. The mainboards were then sent back to China through Hong Kong-based companies for reassembly into new shipments. Singapore police stated, "This facilitated the transfer of the fraudulently obtained VAT refunds to the Hong Kong-based mastermind through payments for these mainboards."

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) uncovered the scheme after receiving information about a possible VAT carousel fraud in November 2020. CAD director Peggy Pao emphasized that Singapore remains vigilant against criminal syndicates attempting to launder illicit proceeds through the country.

This carousel-like arrangement allowed the criminal syndicate to perpetuate the scheme by creating a paper trail of sham transactions disguised as legitimate trades.

Sources