Article from New Paper
GOVT TO LOAN SHARK:
Lend money, pay money
IF loan sharks had homes that could be identified, the words
scribbled on their door (and lift landings) would be: Lend money,
pay money.
Then their homes would be taken away, along with their other
possessions.
Think about it, Mr Ah Long San. And be afraid, very afraid.
The Government is turning the tables on you in perhaps the most
painful way: By hitting your pocket.
This, over and above doubling fines and jail terms, and mandatory
caning if you injure someone.
'ILL-GOTTEN GAINS'
That's right. Your prized bungalow, your Mercedes-Benz, your gold
jewellery, your bank deposits, your beloved possessions acquired
(read: enriched yourself with) through your illegal
activities.
You stand to lose them all.
In legal terms, they're considered 'ill-gotten gains' or 'profits'
from crime. The authorities are now empowered to seize every cent
of it.
As The New Paper found out, even before the penalties under the
Moneylenders Act were toughened this week, the Government had made
a quiet but equally significant insertion two months ago into the
lesser-known Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes
(Confiscation of Benefits) Act.
It simply means that you will have to say bye-bye to the material
assets you have amassed from your crime if you're convicted of any
of these:
Running an unlicenced moneylending business;
Intimidating the borrower or his family;
Harassing him at his home or office with your amateur
spray-painting skills or other tactics.
And this applies whether you're the syndicate big boss or the lowly
runner carrying out the towkay's instructions.
'Oh, I think it will be a very effective deterrent,' veteran
criminal lawyer Edmond Pereira told The New Paper.
'The main thing is to get the big operators, the guys who are
bankrolling the little ones.'
Mr Pereira would know. He defended the original Ah Long San, Chua
Tiong Tiong, in 2001.
Chua, by far Singapore's most infamous loan shark, is now serving a
10-year jail term for bribing nine police officers. He may be due
for remission next year, said his ex-lawyer.
SUPER RICH
The New Paper reported four years ago that Chua and his family were
believed to hanging on to millions of dollars in assets - several
landed properties in the east, assorted businesses like
restaurants, a karaoke lounge, a renovation firm and a jewellery
store.
Although the latest amendments can apply only to new cases, Mr
Pereira explained that if Chua gets out and returns to his old
tricks, whatever is left of his material wealth may well be in
jeopardy.
'Of course, just because the guy is a loan shark and driving a BMW
doesn't mean the car was purchased from the fruits of his crime,'
said Mr Pereira.
'There's no presumption. The onus is still on the prosecution to
prove it. But if he's got no other work, and his only business is
illegal moneylending, then I think it's easy to show that anything
and everything that he owns has been acquired through such
transactions.'
Indeed, for other serious crimes like drug trafficking, seizure of
profits has been a punishment since 1992. (See report on Page
4).
The range of crimes covered was widened in 1999 to include fraud,
criminal breach of trust and almost every imagineable offence -
from kidnapping to counterfeiting to rape to murder.
And now, loan-sharking - a vital part of sending what Senior
Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee called 'a
strong signal that the Government has zero tolerance for (such)
activities'.
'It's inevitable,' said Mr Pereira. 'I'm surprised (confiscation)
wasn't included earlier.'
The confiscation provision aside, repeat offenders can now also be
jailed up to five years and fined up to $200,000. And if they
damage any property and hurt the borrowers or anyone else in the
process, they can even be slapped with up to 12 strokes of the
rotan.
And no wonder.
Loan shark cases have quadrupled from 1,500
in 1995 to some 6,000 last year. It is such a problem that that the
police set up its own dedicated Anti-Unlicenced Moneylending Task
Force in June.
A Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman also explained how the
authorities would deal with the dirty assets, both cash and
non-cash, that are traced and recovered.
Big-ticket items like houses, cars and jewellery will be 'valued by
independent companies and then auctioned off'.
Bank deposits, even those based overseas, will be seized 'via a
confiscation order from the courts and realised in the form of
cashier orders'.
Everything seized will go into the Government's Consolidated
Fund.
In other words, the Government's saying: Owe Money, Pay
Money.
You could say it's the long arm of the law (pun intended) catching
up with the Ah Long San.
Clearly, when the police say crime doesn't 'pay', they mean it
literally.
