SINGAPORE – A man who held multiple directorships and secretarial and shareholder positions in 185 firms has had his registration as a qualified individual cancelled by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra).

On Jan 19, Acra said the registrations of filing agent LW Business Consultancy (LWBC) and Wang Junjie as a registered qualified individual (RQI) had been cancelled on Jan 18.

Acra said its investigations are part of the ongoing money laundering probe here. At least $3 billion in cash and assets have been seized in Singapore’s largest money laundering case.

Acra said Wang is the RQI and director of LWBC.

The registrations were cancelled in view of breaches of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) controls under the Acra (Filing Agents and Qualified Individuals) Regulations 2015.

Acra said one of the AML/CFT breaches committed by LWBC was failing to perform additional customer due diligence measures when a customer is not physically present during the onboarding process.

Other breaches included not inquiring if there were other beneficial owners linked to its clients, and failing to perform risk assessments on some of its customers.

In its statement, Acra said: “Wang, as the RQI and director of LWBC, also did not supervise his employees in carrying out their duties, which resulted in the breaches. Accordingly, Acra determined that Wang no longer met the fit and proper criteria to remain registered as an RQI, and Wang’s registration as an RQI was consequently cancelled.”

Acra said RQIs and registered filing agents (RFAs) provide corporate secretarial services for business entities, such as helping customers to incorporate companies, file annual returns and fulfil other filing requirements under the Companies Act 1967 or other Acts under Acra’s purview.

RQIs and RFAs must perform customer due diligence measures and guard against breaches in AML/CFT.

Those who commit breaches can be fined up to $10,000 per breach for RQIs and $25,000 per breach for RFAs, or have their registrations with Acra suspended or cancelled.

Acra said it has planned additional measures, including enhancing the penalties on errant service providers, to strengthen the effectiveness of Singapore’s anti-money laundering regime.

It is working with the Ministry of Finance to table the proposals in Parliament in the coming months.

Acra said RQIs and RFAs play an important role in helping to detect and combat illicit activities.

It added that between 2021 and 2023, it had cancelled or suspended the registrations of 17 RQIs and RFAs.

On Aug 15, 2023, the Commercial Affairs Department arrested 10 foreigners – nine men and one woman – in Singapore’s biggest money laundering case, which has made headlines globally.

The Straits Times had reported on Sept 3, 2023, that Wang Junjie, identified as J.J. in the report, had held positions in nine companies linked to three of the 10 accused in the money laundering probe.

They are Su Haijin, 40; Su Baolin, 42; and Vang Shuiming, also known as Wang Shuiming, 43.

On Aug 23, 2023, ST visited Wang Junjie at his Housing Board flat in Bedok, but he was not at home at the time. In a call to ST later that night, he confirmed that he was in business with one of the suspects, denying he worked with the others.

In response to ST’s queries in September 2023, Acra said it is uncommon for individuals to hold numerous directorships in Singapore, but there are currently no caps.

Acra had said then that it was working on amendments to the Companies Act and Acra Act to limit the number of nominee directorships that an individual can hold.

Wang’s case has not been the only one to make the news recently.

On Dec 21, 2023, a Singaporean who was listed as a director of 980 companies was sentenced to four weeks’ jail and fined $57,000.

He did not exercise reasonable diligence in the proper discharge of his duties with two firms, and pleaded guilty to 18 charges under the Companies Act.

On Nov 30, 2023, two Singaporean men who were nominee directors of shell companies here were sentenced to four weeks’ and six weeks’ jail respectively, after their firms inadvertently helped scammers launder almost $20 million.

Both men had pleaded guilty to charges of failing to exercise reasonable diligence in their duties as directors. They were disqualified from being company directors for five years.

On Sept 27, 2023, an unemployed Singaporean who became nominee director of 186 companies was fined $4,000 for failing to exercise reasonable diligence in his duty as director. He was disqualified from being a company director for three years.

The 49-year-old was offered $50 a year for each firm incorporated here in which he was named a nominee director. He was promised another $50 each time he opened a bank account for the firms, and if he had to turn up to sign papers.

One of the firms was later used by scammers to launder US$2.36 million (S$3.17 million) from victims overseas.