Reports from Singapore appear to confirm that affluent Mainland Chinese are now avoiding having their financial professionals open single-family offices there, ever since a massive series of arrests and seizures in the equivalent of a multi-billion dollar money laundering case involving alleged Chinese organized crime figures. Singapore had been the destination of choice for wealthy Chinese seeking to place their funds there, employing family offices to invest their capital.
The question has come up: are the Chinese who are now avoiding Singapore's financial structure doing so because they have found more suitable jurisdictions elsewhere, or do they fear being targeted in a money laundering investigation, due to issues with Sources of Funds or Source of Wealth? We understand that, in order to attract Chinese capital, a number of AML "shortcuts" occurred, to obtain this lucrative business. Whether there will be any publicly-disclosed fallout from what might be considered compliance malpractice we cannot say, but we are closely monitoring the case, to determine if there will be accountability, or whether such negative press will be suppressed, in such a tightly-controlled media environment.
Where Chinese money that might be of dodgy origen is going now is not known but, we are actively looking for any signs from offshore centers in the Asia-Pacific region of an increase in traffic, which might give us the answer; stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.