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October 11, 2006
Singapore none too fussy about the source of wealth in its financial sector
Pseudonymity said a report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini says 18,000, out of 55,000 high net worth individuals in Singapore, are of Indonesian origin with permanent resident status. And their assets alone are worth US$87 billion!! In light of these figures, it's worth reading Michael Backman's article from July'06..........
YOU are an Indonesian businessman. You've bribed a state bank official to give you a $US200 million ($A265 million) loan without sufficient collateral, or a risk assessment, for a business venture you know won't get off the ground.The authorities have found out and you're facing arrest. You need somewhere to go where authorities can't touch you. So where do you go? The answer is Singapore. Why? Because it is a half-hour flight from Jakarta, or 45 minutes by ferry from the Indonesian island of Batam, and, most importantly, it does not have an extradition treaty with Indonesia.
It is largely ethnically Chinese, just like many of Indonesia's white-collar criminals, if only because Indonesians of Chinese ancestry dominate that country's business sector.
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