Eight shophouses linked to money laundering probe put on the market

Jan 26, 2024

EIGHT shophouses held by entities linked to suspects in the S$3 billion money laundering case have surfaced on the market and are being put up for sale.

Three of the properties are now being marketed at S$61.1 million. They are adjoining shophouses in Chinatown bought by a Chinese businessman with links to Wang Dehai, one of the 10 accused persons in the money laundering case.

The Stanley Street properties are owned by a company, Aalto Group, The Business Times has learnt. Checks by BT show a receiver has been appointed for Aalto Group.

A receiver is appointed to take possession of and sell or liquidate assets in order to repay a company’s outstanding debt.

The trio of shophouses at 4, 5 and 6 Stanley Street sit on a land area of 4,030 square feet, said Knight Frank, which is marketing the shophouses on behalf of the receiver.

Checks by BT show Aalto Group is a holding company whose sole director is Su Fuxiang, who has been identified as a person of interest to the police. A mortgage under DBS was lodged in 2021.

As recently as 2023, Su had purchased six adjoining conservation shophouses along Circular Road for S$80 million. The sale contract was entered into in March and the transaction was understood to have been completed when BT reported the news in June.

Su is a shareholder of New Future Holdings, which The Straits Times reported was the firm that nominated Wang for his Sentosa Golf Club membership.

Wang was one of 10 foreign nationals arrested in August 2023 in an islandwide operation for forgery and money laundering offences.

Wang, who holds a Cypriot passport, faces two charges under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and other Serious Crimes Act. He had allegedly used S$23 million worth of proceeds from an unlawful remote gambling service in the Philippines to buy a condominium unit in The Marq on Paterson Hill in 2019.

In response to queries from BT, Knight Frank said that it was unaware that Aalto Group was owned by Su and that he is a person of interest to the police.

“We have no contact or dealings with the owners,” it added.

Another five shophouse units at Amoy Street and Telok Ayer Street were put up for sale in December, according to a report in Chinese-language daily Lianhe Zaobao.

The 999-year leasehold shophouses were listed for sale without asking prices, and are said to be valued at about S$45 million. The five properties are owned by a company formed in January 2021, which has Su Binghai registered as a director. Su Binghai is associated with the individual who owns the Stanley Street shophouses, Su Fuxiang, and both are linked to arrested suspect Wang.

Neither Su Fuxiang nor Su Binghai has been seen in Singapore since September, according to ST.

The three shophouses along Stanley Street are zoned “Commercial” under the Master Plan 2019. They are connected across the third storey with approval for office use, and also have partial connectivity on the second storey where a fitness and wellness studio is located, said Knight Frank. The ground floor is tenanted to food and beverage outlets.

The supply of shophouses in Singapore is limited, with about 6,500 shophouses given conservation status.

The shophouse market has slowed significantly, with economic uncertainty and the anti-money laundering bust putting a drag on sales. The volume of transactions hit a 13-year low in the last quarter, according to a recent PropNex shophouse report.

Based on caveats lodged, there were only 15 shophouse transactions in Q4 2023, down 60 per cent from the 37 deals in the previous quarter, PropNex said.

For the whole of 2023, the only recorded shophouse transaction along Stanley Street was the sale of 28 Stanley Street to 8M Real Estate for S$29 million, or S$4,580 per square foot based on floor area.

The tender for the Stanley Street shophouses closes on Mar 28.

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