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SINGAPORE \u2013 Turkish national Vang Shuiming was fast asleep at around 6am when his maid knocked on his bedroom door.<\/p>\n
A group of police officers, some donning balaclavas, were already in the good class bungalow he was renting in Bishopsgate, which was leased in 2020 for $150,000 a month.<\/p>\n
Although the raid on Aug 15, 2023 caught him off-guard, he remained cool. Vang, whose birth name in China is Wang Shuiming, was familiar with police investigations.<\/p>\n
The then 42-year-old was a key member of the Cambodia-based Heng Bo Bao Wang gambling syndicate<\/span><\/a>, which also had a presence in China and the Philippines. His brother Wang Shuiting was also a high-ranking member.<\/p>\n Teh Yee Liang, then a team leader in Commercial Affairs Department\u2019s (CAD) International Cooperation Branch said: \u201cSeeing him in person, I was thinking oh, this is the person I will be investigating for an extended period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Teh, who was seconded to Interpol in October 2026, was among a small number of investigators with the CAD who would go on to spend the next nine months working on Singapore\u2019s biggest money laundering probe<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Just over a year earlier, Vang and his brother had escaped arrest in China when the authorities in Shandong busted the syndicate in May 2022 and rounded up more than 130 members.<\/p>\n Vang was already in Singapore then, having relocated around 2019 with his entire family including his wife, three children and elderly parents.<\/p>\n But the law caught up with him in Singapore that morning.<\/p>\n Teh said Vang was cooperative, leading officers to the collection of luxury watches and designer bags in the 17,100 sq ft property.<\/p>\n Inside a safe, officers found stacks of cash alongside Vang\u2019s passports from China and Vanuatu. He also held Cambodian citizenship, and had planned to obtain citizenship from Saint Kitts and Nevis.<\/p>\n The police eventually seized dozens of items, including a pallet of about 50 bottles of Macallan 25 Years Sherry Oak whisky. Each bottle of the whisky cost between $4,000 and $5,000 then.<\/p>\n Also seized were eight watches worth $17.4 million in total, from brands such as Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Franck Muller and Chopard, and a Kawai crystal grand piano worth $240,000.<\/p>\n Teh was at the house for about three hours, but his colleagues stayed on longer to secure the items. Simultaneous raids were conducted around the same time in others parts of Singapore.<\/p>\n In total, 27 foreign nationals were implicated in a case that saw them linked to about $3 billion in dirty money and assets.<\/p>\n Vang was among 10 later sentenced and deported. The other 17 either fled the country or just stayed away.<\/p>\n The authorities in Singapore eventually seized cash and assets of 25 of the foreign nationals. They were all barred from returning to Singapore.<\/p>\n Teh got a call on Aug 14, a day before the raid in 2023, to attend a morning briefing at the CAD headquarters at the Police Cantonment Complex.<\/p>\n Over a dozen officers attended the briefing, which was conducted by the top brass. Each investigator was handed an information packet containing their assigned suspect.<\/p>\n Vang was Teh\u2019s target.<\/p>\n The file on the Turkish national, who had moved to Singapore in 2019, contained photographs, flags for suspected forgery, his financial background and the address in Bishopsgate.<\/p>\n The intelligence had been pieced together by a tight-knit team of officers, who spent months connecting the dots after first receiving information in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cI had not dealt with something on such a scale before,\u201d said Teh.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were told it was unprecedented and that we would be conducting simultaneous raids at various locations, including good class bungalows. We were all very shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n Vang was wealthy.<\/p>\n He and his wife were stakeholders in a Singapore investment company, Ming Huang Investments. He also had interests in a separate local investment firm, Golden WHH, owned by Lin Baoying, another suspect in the case.<\/p>\n He owned or invested in several local properties, including 11 units at CanningHill Piers, and apartments around Clarke Quay and Beach Road.<\/p>\nSecret briefing<\/h2>\n