SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jason Lim, Sreenivasan Narayanan SC and Palaniappan Sundararaj, Sreenivasan Chambers LLC
“Failure to Prevent” Bribery Singapore does not currently recognise a standalone “failure to prevent bribery” offence, unlike some other jurisdictions. 3.3 Money Laundering Principal Money Laundering Offences and Predicate Offences Money laundering offences in Singapore are set out in the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 (CDSA). Under Section 54 (1) of the CDSA, a person commits a money laundering offence if they: • conceal or disguise property that represents (in whole or in part, directly or indirectly) the proceeds of criminal conduct; • convert or transfer such property, or remove it from the jurisdiction; or • acquire, possess or use such property. Section 54 (2) of the CDSA criminalises dealing with such property where a person knows or has reason - able grounds to believe that the property represents another person’s benefits from criminal conduct. Under Section 51 (2) of the CDSA, it is an offence to assist another person to retain the benefits of criminal conduct, where the assister knows or has reasonable grounds to believe that the other person has engaged in criminal conduct or benefited from it. AML Obligations and Sanctions Singapore imposes extensive anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) obligations, particularly on financial institutions. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issues legally binding AML/CFT Notices requiring finan - cial institutions to implement robust controls. These include: • customer due diligence;
In addition, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 (the “FSMA 2022”) and its subsidiary legislation (including the FSM Regulations) support Singapore’s compliance with international AML/CFT obligations, including those arising from United Nations Security Council Resolutions. A failure to comply with applicable AML/CFT require - ments constitutes an offence. Under the FSMA 2022, a financial institution that breaches MAS AML/CFT Notices may be liable on conviction to a fine of up to SGD1 million per offence, in addition to potential regulatory actions by MAS (eg, directions, reprimands or licence-related sanctions). 3.4 Financial Services Crime Insider Dealing Insider dealing is prohibited under Section 219 of the SFA. A person who possesses information that is not gen - erally available and which, if it were generally avail - able, would be expected to have a material effect on the price or value of securities, securities-based derivatives contracts or units in a collective invest - ment scheme must not: • subscribe for, purchase or sell such products; or • communicate that information to another person where they know or ought reasonably to know that the recipient would trade on it. A contravention of Section 219 is punishable by a fine of up to SGD250,000 and/or imprisonment for up to seven years. Market Manipulation Part 12 of the SFA criminalises various forms of mar - ket manipulation, including: • false trading and market rigging – engaging in conduct that creates a false or misleading appear - ance of active trading or the market for or price of capital markets products; • wash sales – transactions that do not result in any change in beneficial ownership; and
• ongoing monitoring; • record-keeping; and • suspicious transaction reporting.
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