A WEEK IS A LONG TIME IN SINGAPOREAN POLITICS
A report in Bloomberg identifies the means by which North Korea has managed to stay afloat inspite of “civil societies” and the US government’s claims it is a failed state and a brutal dictatorship. All of these claims arise because the US is not held in high esteem in places like North Korea and the North Korean leadership simply refuse to bow down and worship at the US alter of western liberalism and their ideals of democracy,
Out of this report comes yet another revelation of why Singapore must not be believed or be held up to be a role model of clean and fair government. It is an ideal flaunted by the opposition in Malaysia and the state of Singapore and held up as a role model of what an all inclusive Malaysia would be like. (All inclusive of the Chinese some Indian token thumby’s like Ambiga ) under the pro Singapore opposition.
Inspite of their claims to cleaning up on dirty money and higher standards as far as banking practices are concerned, Singapore has been caught out again, breaching international sanctions against North Korea laundering dirty money whilst spewing pious rhetoric about its clean and stringent banking practices in well crafted lies.
It is widely known that Singapore is one of the world’s largest launderers of arms trafficking money, people trafficking money and drug money from Mexico, the US, Myanmar, Thailand, Columbia, Peru and Bolivia. It is also the home and laundromat of illicit money from Central Asian dictators and from businessmen in south east Asia including Malaysia seeking a new home away from home.
HOW ‘STRICT SCRUTINY’ ON MONEY BANKED (LAUNDERED) IN SINGAPORE IS OVERCOME
The following is an extract from the article from Bloomberg published today.
A trail of money stretching from a Panamanian shipping agent to an octogenarian Singaporean to a Chinese bank provides a window on why U.S. efforts to tighten sanctions on North Korea may be harder to achieve than in the case of Iran.
For decades North Korea has built networks of front companies and foreign intermediaries to channel currency in and out, circumventing attempts to isolate it over its nuclear-weapons program. Court documents and interviews with investigators, banks and prosecutors show the cornerstone of those networks is China.
“Its geographic proximity, the huge trade volume, having the contacts, and having the historic relationship all contribute to making China the center point for any North Korean initiative to evade international financial sanctions,” said William Newcomb, a former member of a panel of experts assisting the United Nations’ North Korea sanctions committee. “China is a very important piece in making sure that blockages work.”
Sanctions applied by the U.S. and other countries to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear weapons program included the freezing of about $32 billion of oil revenue held at banks overseas. Those accounts were unlocked after last year’s nuclear accord, negotiated with world powers including the U.S. and European Union.
About 70 percent to 80 percent of North Korea’s foreign earnings have in the past come via China, said Kim Kwang Jin, who ran the Singapore branch of North Korea’s North East Asia Bank before defecting in 2003. “That huge trade volume means there are more people in China who are willing to cooperate with the regime,” Kim said by phone from Seoul.
Gopal Raj Kumar 
Please, lah…go peddle another conspiracy theory. Or two.
The US Fed could have put the kibosh on these alleged “loopholes” and “fishy transactions” at any time. No sound from the Fed. Is it sleeping on the job?
And if Singapore is the “black money capital of the world” with a concomitant unsavoury reputation, why have both the IMF and the World Bank set up regional offices in the republic? For “fun and games”?
Why don’t you call on these two institutions to close their offices and pull out of Singapore? They can always relocate to KL or Labuan!
More to the point, why don’t send your comments to the Singapore papers and see if they publish them? You can always call them out and shame them in public if they suppress your comments.
Simple enough, isn’t it?
But, then, you run the risk of getting sued. But that shouldn’t deter a “seeker of the truth” like yourself, right?
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It is not up to us to call on anyone to close or open offices anywhere. Perhaps you ought to tell Bloomberg that. The extract is from a Bloomberg report that has surfaced. It demonstrates once again the hypocrisy behind Singapore’s “clean” image when it comes to banking. When HKSBC was fined US$ 6 billion for the first part of the penalty they suffered in the US for their laundering of massive amounts of Mexican and Colombian cocaine money, the trail led to Singapore.
You appear to hold the IMF and World Bank in such high esteem for what purpose? They are two of the worst bullies in the financial markets and nothing more than a policy making and enforcing body that preys on the weaker nations and those who are desperate. Their influence in the developing world is waning now with the Chinese, Russians, Indians, Brazilians and South Africans operated by the BRICS states as an alternative to the existing American and European-dominated World Bank has attracted the near bankrupt European states as well because that power of money does not reside in the west anymore as it once did.
A coolie mindset compels you to kow tow to the old colonials in the home they come back and ‘redeem’ you from the Malays. Thats what’ eating you.
Singapore remains a massive laundromat and a close friend of the west. They will turn the other way when it suits them like they did with Suharto when he was butchering his citizens (all 3,500,000 of them). And Singapore was happy to bank Suharto and Liem Soei Liems bloody booty as well.
Its not over by a long shot. But you can wallow in your conspiracy theories as your best shot to a response and your grovelling behind the Singaporeans and the west. Good luck to you but don’t forget to wipe the turds off your face in the end. They won’t do it for you.
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So, are you saying that the Fed is deliberately closing it’s eyes to the alleged money laundering etc in Singapore? That’s the key question that Kineas asked. And which you conveniently sidestepped by airily dismissing Singapore as “a close friend of the west” and that they (the west, presumably) will “turn the other way when it suits them”.
And isn’t Malaysia also “a close friend of the west”? And, by the same token, are they “turning the other way when it suits them” with regards to developments in Malaysia? It’s not six of one and a half dozen of the other, is it?
Chinese banks are relatively big players in the Singapore financial sector. Is the PBOC not concerned about “capital flight” to Singapore and by Chinese parties laundering money through the city-state? Has it vocalised these concerns? Have the Chinese authorities embarked on “fox hunting” missions in Singapore?
As for Indonesia, Jokowi is an avowed admirer of Singapore. There are reports about Indonesians squirreling away funds in Singapore and Indonesia planning a tax amnesty to try and get some of these funds back. Will that stop Indonesians from visiting Singapore and buying Singapore real estate? Will that make Indonesian airlines cut back on flights to Changi Airport?
“Grovelling” is a nice pejorative to employ when you have run out of arguments and when your comments are pathetic attempts to soothe your angst about Singapore. Maybe you are a fan of Tun Dr Mahathir’s erstwhile attempts to “skin” Singapore. And look at how that turned out!
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Side stepping what. Tell Bloomberg that. You live in a world thats black and white and we can’t do much about people in your position. But thanks for taking the time to read and to respond.
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