What is money laundering?
In essence, “money laundering” means handling money or other property that came from a crime, for example by receiving, moving, hiding or spending it. Singapore’s Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act 1992 (“CDSA”) does not have a single money laundering offence. It has a group of offences, which differ according to whose money it is and what the accused knew or should have known.
The main offences, and the maximum punishment for each, are:
| Offence | Section | What it covers | Maximum punishment for an individual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Helping someone else keep or control criminal proceeds, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe | s 51(1) | This is the offence usually charged against cash collectors (commonly referred to as “runners”) for scam syndicates, and against people who knowingly let their accounts be used to receive and pass on scam money. | Fine up to $500,000, imprisonment up to 10 years, or both; caning up to 12 strokes where scam proceeds are involved (offences from 30 Dec 2025) |
| Helping someone else keep or control criminal proceeds rashly – in other words, knowing there was a real risk that the money was criminal, when it was unreasonable to take that risk | s 51(1A) | This covers the same conduct where the accused did not know, and did not have reasonable grounds to believe, that the money was criminal, but acted rashly or negligently. | Fine up to $250,000, imprisonment up to 5 years, or both |
| Helping someone else keep or control criminal proceeds negligently – in other words, failing to act as a reasonable person would have done | s 51(1A) | This covers the same conduct where the accused did not know, and did not have reasonable grounds to believe, that the money was criminal, but acted rashly or negligently. | Fine up to $150,000, imprisonment up to 3 years, or both |
| Dealing with one’s own criminal proceeds | s 54(1) | This is sometimes called “self-laundering”: for example, a person who has misappropriated money (i.e., dishonestly taken or used money belonging to someone else) and then transfers or spends it himself / herself. | Fine up to $500,000, imprisonment up to 10 years, or both; caning up to 12 strokes where scam proceeds are involved (offences from 30 Dec 2025) |
| Dealing with someone else’s criminal proceeds, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe | s 54(2), (3) | This involves concealing, transferring, acquiring, possessing or using someone else’s criminal proceeds, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe what they are. | Fine up to $500,000, imprisonment up to 10 years, or both; caning up to 12 strokes where scam proceeds are involved (offences from 30 Dec 2025) |
| Dealing with someone else’s criminal proceeds rashly or negligently | s 54(3A) | This is the same concept as section 51(1A) mentioned above, applied to dealing with someone else’s criminal proceeds. | Rashly: fine up to $250,000, imprisonment up to 5 years, or both. Negligently: fine up to $150,000, imprisonment up to 3 years, or both |
| Possessing or using property reasonably suspected to be criminal proceeds, without satisfactorily accounting for it | s 55 | This involves situations where the person cannot satisfactorily account for how he or she came by the property. | Fine up to $150,000, imprisonment up to 3 years, or both |
The above are maximum punishments for individuals. A company convicted of an offence under section 51 or 54 of the CDSA may be fined up to $1 million or twice the value of the criminal proceeds involved, whichever is higher.
What are the recent changes to the law?
Lower thresholds of guilt to catch money mules (from 8 February 2024)
Before 8 February 2024, a person could only be convicted of the money laundering offences under sections 51 and 54 of the CDSA if the Prosecution proved that he or she knew, or had reasonable grounds to believe, that the money was criminal.
In 2023, against a sharp rise in scams, the Second Minister for Home Affairs explained that this requirement had made it difficult to act against people who allow their bank accounts to be used to move criminal proceeds (referred to in Parliament as “money mules”): of some 19,000 such persons investigated by the police between 2020 and 2022, fewer than 250 were prosecuted.
The amendments to the law, in force from 8 February 2024, added the offences of money laundering rashly or negligently (for example, sections 51(1A) and 54(3A) as mentioned above), with lower maximum punishments, so that an offence can be made out at a lower level of fault than before (i.e., an accused can now be convicted even though he or she did not know, and did not have reasonable grounds to believe, that the money was criminal, but acted rashly or negligently).
Caning for money laundering involving scam proceeds (offences from 30 December 2025)
For offences committed on or after 30 December 2025, a person convicted under section 51(1) or section 54(1) to (3) of the CDSA is also liable to caning of up to 12 strokes where the money involved is the proceeds of a serious scam offence. For section 51(1) and sections 54(2)-(3), the accused can avoid caning by proving that he or she took reasonable steps to ensure that the money did not come from a scam.
Caning is not automatic. The law makes the offender “liable” to caning, which leaves the decision to the court. As the High Court has noted (Mohamed Erzan Taib Zohri v Public Prosecutor and other appeals [2026] SGHC 183), Parliament made caning mandatory for scammers and for members and recruiters of scam syndicates, but discretionary for those who facilitate scams.