Singapore (VNA) – Singapore has announced its national asset recovery strategy (NARS), setting out a comprehensive approach towards the recovery of illicit funds and assets from criminals, and the forfeiture of these assists of their return to victims.
The strategy was announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the opening of the Financial Action Task Force Plenary Meeting on June 26, as part of Singapore’s continued efforts to enhance its Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime.
The NARS will comprise four prongs – detecting suspicious and criminal activities by tracing the illicit funds, depriving criminals of their ill-gotten proceeds through prompt seizure and confiscation, delivering maximum recovery of assets for forfeiture and restitution to victims, and deterring criminals from using Singapore to hide, move, or enjoy their illicit assets.
According to Singapore's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), between January 2019 and June 2024, Singapore seized 6 billion SGD (4.4 billion USD) linked to criminal and money laundering activities. Some 416 million SGD has been returned to the victims, and 1 billion USD forfeited to the state, with the bulk of the remaining sums linked to ongoing investigations or court proceedings./.
