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- Latest cases, legislation and regulation updates and commentaries
Andrew HS Ong, the Business Development Partner and the Head of Firm's Regional Operations, wrote an article for Business Times titled "Braving the Asean Frontier". The article focuses on the growing interest of the business community to venture into Asean emerging countries in anticipation of the regional economic integration of the Asean Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. It was noted that although there has been considerable progress in these emerging countries that allows entrepreneurship to thrive to a certain extent, there remain pitfalls to be addressed and overcome. The article then looks into the business, political and legal landscape of Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam to illustrate this point. Common to these countries are the foreign ownership restrictions that hold back investors from considering establishing business presence therein. Political stability is also a concern of business entities intending to do business in these countries. While this is an inherent risk in quite a few countries in the region, political unrest has proven to be a recurring feature in Thailand. Lastly, resolution of disputes involving cross-border transactions is also an issue. In Myanmar, for example, despite having acceded to the New York Convention last year, no domestic legislation has been enacted to date to implement the Convention. This means foreign arbitral awards from the Convention countries are not immediately enforceable at present.
Wrapping up, the author suggests that business entities should be prudent when planning to do business in the Asean countries. They need to seek advice and assistance from professionals before finally venturing into the Asean frontier.
To read the full article, which first appeared in the 4 April 2014 issue of the Business Times, click here.
The article was drafted in collaboration with Teoh Sui Lin from Rajah & Tann's Thailand regional office Rajah & Tann (Thailand) Limited, Chester Toh, the Co-Head of the Firm's Myanmar Desk, Heng Chhay from Cambodia associate firm R&T Sok & Heng Law Office, and Brian Ng from Vietnam regional office Rajah & Tann LCT Lawyers.
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Hamidul Haq, the Head of the Firm's White-Collar Crime Practice, wrote an article titled "Singapore: Enforcement in Corruption, Fraud and Money-Laundering" in the publication Expert Guides White Collar Crime Lawyers. The article discusses the multi-pronged approach Singapore employs in the strict crack down on corruption, fraud and money laundering offences in the country. For one, the enforcement authorities in Singapore enjoy a wide scope of investigative powers. This is especially evident in the powers of seizure granted to the authorities in pending investigations. Where crimes of a financial nature are concerned, the relevant enforcement agency is empowered to seize all properties as it deems relevant, including whole bank accounts which may have had any connection to the offence, without reference to the courts.
In instances where the existing financial crimes legislation may be inadequate for lack of evidence for a successful prosecution in court, the Government has embarked to detain suspected criminals in white collar crime without trial in the interests of 'public safety, peace and good order'. The validity of this approach remains to be tested in the courts.
Singapore's uncompromising stance towards financial crime is also manifested in the discretion given to the Public Prosecutor. He exercises prosecutorial discretion and decides the number of charges and types of offences that may be filed against the accused. This is particularly important in cases involving criminal proceeds. In such cases, besides being charged with the underlying substantive or predicate offence, the offender is concurrently charged with the secondary money-laundering offence for any form of use or conversion of the proceeds.
Singapore ranks 5th out of 176 countries in the Corruption Perception Index Scores in 2013 and is recognised as the least corrupt country in Asia. This is greatly attributed to the above-described multi-faceted approach adopted by the Government to deter the perpetuation of financial crimes in Singapore.
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