Cypriot passport holders back in dock in Singapore

The two Cypriot passport holders and eight others accused of involvement in a major money laundering operation appeared in a Singapore court again on Wednesday, with all ten denied bail and remanded in custody until September 6.

The Cypriot passport holders had previously been named as Su Haijin, aged 40, and Wang Dehai, aged 34.

Prosecutors said the suspects were a “flight risk” as they all had overseas connections and assets, and that they could “also collude to contaminate evidence”.

They had been initially arrested on August 15, with the other eight arrestees nationals of Cambodia, Dominica, China, Turkey, and Vanuatu.

Singaporean authorities had seized assets of more than 1 billion Singaporean dollars (€680 million), from gold bars, designer handbags and fistfuls of jewellery to scores of properties and luxury cars.

The group of ten are accused of gaining the assets through “overseas organised crime, including scams, remote gambling in the Philippines, and unlicensed moneylending in China”.

The Cypriot interior ministry had earlier said it would monitor the case closely and if any information surfaced indicating a violation of citizenship conditions, the Cypriot passports of the accused would be revoked immediately.