Chen Zhi, founder of Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, has been accused by the US Department of Justice of running a cyber-scam network. US authorities have charged Chen with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. According to reports in October (ABC and others), the accusations were revealed in a 14 October indictment that coincided with the seizure of crypto assets, including $14 billion of bitcoin. The indictment said 250 victims were affected.

Separately, the UK has frozen 19 properties. It was also announced last week that Hong Kong and Taiwan had seized substantial amounts of assets and made arrests.

The MAS was asked in parliament last week about the extent of the saga.

“Thus far, MAS has identified two single-family office (SFO) funds granted tax incentives that are linked to the sanctioned individuals,” Chee Hong Tat, Minister for National Development and Deputy Chairman of MAS, said in a statement on 5 November. (The “sanctioned individuals” were not named. Also, the MAS statement did not identify the “single-family office funds.”)

The minister referred to the tax incentives Singapore offers to single-family office funds and the application process governing them.

“Based on available data over the past three years, about 3 per cent out of 1,300 applications were rejected. Besides the rejected applications, some potential applicants also withdrew their interest to apply before submitting a formal application when questions were posed and requirements clarified at the pre-application stage,” he said. “As part of the tax incentive application process, individuals and entities are screened against databases to ensure there are no reports of their involvement in illegal activities such as money laundering and terrorism financing. The SFO fund is also required to open and maintain an account with an MAS-licensed bank and is subject to the bank’s customer due diligence and ongoing monitoring checks, including the detection of any unusual or suspicious transactions.”

It is important to avoid “knee-jerk” reactions to such cases, the minister said.

“SFOs linked to individuals convicted of money laundering offences represent a very small proportion of the overall sector, at less than 1 per cent,” he said.

“Similar to all major international financial centres, it is not possible to have zero incidents given the complex nature of the financial services industry and the high volume of daily transactions. In addition, combatting financial crime requires a global effort, as illicit fund flows are often cross-border in nature,” the minister added.

Singapore launched an investigation on 30 October after announcing the seizure of financial assets belonging to Chen worth more than S$150 million ($114 million), as well as a yacht and other items. Police have issued prohibition of disposal orders and seized assets including properties, cars, bank accounts and securities accounts.

Chen has served as an advisor to Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father, former Prime Minister Hun Sen. Several reports said that Chen, 37, appears to have vanished.

“There is a Chinese saying that when we open the windows, some flies may also enter. The solution is not to shut our windows and block out sunlight and fresh air. What matters is that we act swiftly to deal with the flies that enter, while also letting in sunlight and fresh air. This is the approach we take in Singapore – risk-proportionate, not zero-risk,” the minister added.