SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Jason Lim, Sreenivasan Narayanan SC and Palaniappan Sundararaj, Sreenivasan Chambers LLC
The scope of prosecutorial discretion is broad but not absolute. Singapore courts have held that pros - ecutorial discretion is generally not subject to judi - cial review, except in limited circumstances, such as where there has been breach of constitutional rights (eg, Article 12 equality before the law); or bad faith or abuse of power. Beyond these narrow exceptions, the courts will not interfere with prosecutorial decision-making 4.2 Due Process and Bail Financial crime cases in Singapore generally take sig - nificantly longer to prosecute than other offences. This is mainly due to the volume and complexity of evidence involved, including financial records, bank statements, corporate documents and electronic communications. These cases often also require expert evidence, such as forensic accounting or digital forensics, and may involve cross-border investigations requiring mutual legal assistance. In addition, many cases involve multiple accused persons and complex transactional structures. As a result, financial crime proceedings can take around two to five years from investigation to trial, and longer in more complex matters. Granting of bail to accused persons depends on whether the offence is bailable or non-bailable under the Criminal Procedure Code 2010. Most financial crime offences are non-bailable as a matter of right, but in practice bail is often granted subject to condi - tions. The court considers factors such as flight risk, risk of interference with evidence or witnesses, seri - ousness of the charges and personal circumstances of the accused. Singapore does not impose statutory custody time limits for bringing cases to trial. Instead, delay is man - aged through judicial case management and general constitutional safeguards ensuring a fair hearing with - in a reasonable time. 4.3 Public or State Funding Singapore provides several avenues of publicly fund - ed legal assistance for individuals facing criminal charges, including financial crime charges. For exam - ple, the Public Defender’s Office (PDO), which was established in 2022. The Criminal Legal Aid Scheme
(CLAS), administered by the Law Society of Singa - pore, also provides legal representation to accused persons. Both schemes require applicants to satisfy a means and merits test. Parties accused of white-collar or regulatory offences are highly unlikely to have incomes/assets low enough to satisfy the means test. 4.4 Venue and Specialisation Trials involving financial crimes trials in Singapore are heard in the State Courts (specifically the District Courts), and occasionally the High Court (for high- value complex cases). As a general rule, where the prosecution is seeking a sentence in excess of ten years’ imprisonment, the matter will be tried in the High Court. Singapore does not have a dedicated financial crime court or specialist criminal list for financial crime cas - es. 4.5 Trial by Jury Singapore abolished the jury system in 1969, and all criminal trials, including those involving financial crime, are heard and determined by a single judge. 5. Corporate Liability, Compliance and Defences 5.1 Corporate and Individual Liability In Singapore, companies and individuals can be pros - ecuted concurrently for the same underlying conduct. Corporate criminal liability is generally attributed through the doctrine of attribution, under which the acts and mental state of individuals who constitute the “directing mind and will” of the company, or who are acting within delegated managerial authority, are treated as the acts of the company. Within corporate groups, Singapore maintains the principle of separate legal personality. Each company is treated as a distinct legal entity, and as a general rule, a parent company is not liable for the criminal acts of its subsidiaries, and vice versa. The corporate veil will only be pierced in exceptional circumstances,
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