SINGAPORE, Nov 8 — Despite being busy evading Singapore authorities, two China-born suspects in a money laundering case still managed to acquire multiple high-value UK properties.

According to the Straits Times, both Su Binghai and Xu Haika, originally from China but with business interests in Singapore, had purchased a staggering amount of properties in 2023 while on the run.

Those purchases were made via their UK-listed firms between July and September 2023.

Just one week after fleeing a Singapore police operation on August 15, 2023, Su’s firm bought nine apartments in London worth S$27 million (RM86.5 million).

Xu in the same time period purchased 16 units worth S$42.6 million in London.

He also has substantial assets in Singapore including a S$27 million shophouse on South Bridge Road.

Su and his wife Wang Manzuin in October 2024 have agreed to surrender their Singapore assets to the state but Xu has not.

The surrendered assets include four cars and properties valued at more than $316.6 million.

The UK National Crime Agency declared yesterday that it had seized Su Binghai’s assets including the nine London apartments, after the London High Court granted an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) and also a freezing order for Su’s UK assets in April 2025.

Su had also purchased three Jurassic-era dinosaur skeletons for £12.4million (RM67.8 million) in a December 2024 London auction; these were also seized.

However Su still owns multiple luxury apartments in Hong Kong as well as two Dubai properties.

Six banks as well as three other financial institutions were fined S$27.5 million in July over the money laundering scandal that involved more than S$3 billion in illicit assets seized after 10 foreigners were arrested in a series of simultaneous raids in August 2023.

Gold bars, cryptocurrencies, millions in cash, jewelry, 62 vehicles as well as more than 150 properties were seized as part of the investigation.