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.
