Singapore: New Money‐Laundering Law under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act

Abstract

After six years, the money‐laundering law, under the Drug Trafficking (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 (DTA), is now changed. The DTA (which came into operation on 30th November, 1993) has been criticised by some for its limited scope in criminalising only drug‐related money‐laundering activities. Others perceived the lack of powers to extradite money‐laundering offenders as another shortcoming. This is no longer the case today in Singapore. This paper highlights some of the changes recently introduced under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act (SCA) which was passed on 6th July, 1999 and came into operation on 13th September, 1999 (‘commencement date’). To be sure, the SCA is not new legislation; it is merely an amendment to the DTA. One of the amendments was the renaming of the DTA to reflect the criminalisation of corruption and other serious crimes as money‐laundering offences. Hence, the law governing money laundering is no longer called the DTA but the SCA.

Citation

Sin Liang, T. (2000), "Singapore: New Money‐Laundering Law under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act", Journal of Money Laundering Control, Vol. 3 No. 3, pp. 260-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027238