How one cyber-scamming syndicate used Singapore for legitimacy
The chairman of Prince Group, indicted over online scams, and his associates took advantage of Singapore’s reputation as a stable and predictable financial capital.
Singapore's central business district skyline in May. (Edgar Su/Reuters)
SINGAPORE — The co-working space, up on the eighth floor of one of this city-state’s many nondescript office buildings, included a few unique perks: a pool table, karaoke room and private cigar bar.
It was also a front for about a dozen companies that helped launder money on behalf of one of the biggest transnational crime syndicates in Asia, according to U.S. prosecutors, and one that allegedly made its billions by forcing trafficked migrant workers to scam people online.
The United States and British governments this month took their most significant action against the cyberscam industry when they sanctioned Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia’s biggest conglomerates, and its chairman, Chen Zhi, and froze their assets in…
US insider trading probe: Singapore firm used to launder illegal proceeds
SINGAPORE – Key members of an insider trading ring linked to transactions that ran into the tens of millions of dollars had moved some of the illegal proceeds through a firm in Singapore, The Straits Times has learnt.
The funds were eventually channelled into a bank account linked to a restaurant in Paris.
Charges were filed on Nov 18 against eight suspects in the network, including Singaporeans Ge Zhi and Dev Ananth Durai.
They are accused of trading on privileged information about the finances and merger plans of several publicly traded firms in the US between 2016 and 2024.
The men, who held meetings in locations from Vienna, the Czech Republic and Paris to Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore, ran a complex operation that included the use of burner phones and code words.
Prosecutors in Boston said the group had recruited investment bankers and corporate insiders, to tap them for confidential information on publicly traded companies. In exchange, the insiders received a share of the profits.
Members of the group then laundered the funds through cash payments, international financial transactions and shell companies.
The group included French national Samy Khouadja, who is said to be the ringleader, and German national Emma Safi, who co-owned a restaurant in Paris with Khouadja.
Court documents showed that Safi and Khouadja, a former banker at Merrill Lynch in France, had recruited Ge into the scheme some time in November 2016.
Ge then travelled to Paris to meet the pair at their restaurant on Nov 19, 2016, and after the lunch meeting, purchased a burner phone and number and started recruiting more traders into the scheme.
US court documents show it was Ge who allegedly recruited individuals to trade on privileged information. He also guided them on when to withdraw their proceeds.
In 2018, Durai was also recruited into the group. Prosecutors said he was trading on inside information by July that year.
Checks by ST showed that some of the illegal proceeds were channelled through Belleby Holding, a firm which Ge incorporated in Singapore in May 2018.
Court documents show Durai wired some €60,000 (S$90,300) – proceeds from insider trading – to Belleby in October 2018. The fund transfers were made on behalf of another suspect, Julien Liu.
According to US prosecutors, Ge controlled the bank account linked to Belleby, which he registered to his residence in Keppel Bay. Ge was a director of the firm until Nov 1, 2025.
The funds were eventually channelled to Safi and Khouadja’s restaurant in Paris.
Checks by ST found that Ge’s wife, a Latvian national, is listed as the current sole director of Belleby. Safi has been a majority shareholder in the firm since May 2022.
The German national is also a shareholder in EA Advisory, a financial services firm located in the Textile Centre and incorporated in March 2017, checks by ST showed. Khouadja, too, is a shareholder of the firm.
Safi is also a shareholder of Tamka Holding, a management consultancy firm in Singapore which shares the same address as EA Advisory.
Safi was arrested in Zurich and handed over to US custody. He pleaded not guilty to his charges including money laundering and securities fraud on Feb 27, 2025.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Khouadja, who is on the run. Liu is also listed as a fugitive.
Charges have been filed against Durai, who remains at large. An arrest warrant has been issued by the District Court of Massachusetts.
ST had earlier reported that Ge was arrested in July 2024 in Singapore, where he has been held under the Extradition Act.
In response to ST, Centurion Law director Favian Kang, who represented Ge in 2024, said he stopped acting for Ge some time in 2024.
A Singapore Police Force (SPF) spokesperson said it is unable to comment on Ge’s extradition case as it is still before the courts.
But the spokesperson confirmed there are no other individuals currently being investigated by the authorities in Singapore in relation to the insider trading case at the moment.
SPF is awaiting “more information from the US authorities to assess whether any offences might have been committed under our laws”, said the spokesperson.
“In the spirit of international cooperation, SPF will continue to render necessary assistance to the US authorities, within the ambit of our laws.”
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-crime/us-insider-trading-probe-singapore-firm-used-to-launder-illegal-proceeds