Chinese national charged with money laundering; over $52M seized

Chinese national YING Xin Su, a 30-year-old travel agent who was previously charged with unlawful possession of firearm and ammunition, was on Thursday, slapped with several charges of money laundering by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU).

YING Xin Su appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates Court, before Acting Chief Magistrate Faith McGusty where she was not required to plea to the indictable charges.

The court however granted Su bail in the sum of $1,500,000 on each charge of money laundering in contravention of Section 3 (1) (c) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Act Chapter 10:11.

On the same date, the accused appeared before Principal Magistrate Judy Latchman at Diamond Magistrates’ Court, where she was charged with one count of money laundering. For this, she was placed on $200,000 bail. All the cases were adjourned to April 17, 2025.

SOCU’s investigations revealed that on July 9, 2024, members of the Guyana Police Force searched Su’s room located at the Princess Ramada International Hotel, Providence, East Bank Demerara for gold smuggling and found GY$52 million, USD 5,480.00, BDS$97.00 and SD662.

They also found an illegal firearm and ammunition. A summary of all the charges revealed that Su acquired or possessed several properties and motor vehicles knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that the said properties and motor vehicles were derived, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly from proceeds of crime which amounted to money laundering.

According to SOCU’s Head Deputy Commissioner Fazil Karimbaksh, these money laundering investigations were ongoing for the past eight months and now was the opportune time to institute charges.