OUTCOME OF 18,700 CASES OF WHITE-COLLAR CRIME INVOLVING $4.49 BILLION INVESTIGATED BY POLICE FROM 2017 TO 2021

White collar crime, particularly through scams, have been increasing rapidly year on year. MOS of MHA, Ms Sun Xueling, drew attention to the fact that the number of scams have increased by 4 times over the last 5 years. The dollar value of scam cases between 2017 and 2021 is more than $1 billion. In fact, the cumulative amount for all white-collar crime is much larger; $4.49 billion. This is a staggering amount. I felt it necessary that the Police come up with a new set of performance indicators to enable members of public know the effectiveness of Police intervention in such cases. In the UK, statistics of asset recovery are routinely available. For eg, for the period 2017 to 2021, the UK Crown Prosecution Service recovered assets worth GBP 530 million and secured GBP 118 million of that amount in compensation for victims of crime. I sought from the Minister of Home Affairs the same details. The Minister informed that the Police does not track such information. In my respectful view, this is something that the Police should consider doing and periodically updating the public too. My PQ and the Minister’s answer may be accessed below.

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Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Home Affairs in relation to the 18,700 cases of white-collar crime that the police investigated involving a total subject matter value of about $4.49 billion from 2017 to 2021 (a) what is the cumulative dollar value of assets that the Police have recovered; and (b) how much of this amount has been returned to the victims of such crimes.

Mr K Shanmugam: Police do not track the cumulative dollar value of assets recovered, and the amount returned to the victims.