SINGAPORE: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will take action against any entity that breaches Singapore's regulations, it said in response to leaks from the "Paradise Papers" that name Singapore trust firm Asiaciti.



"MAS is reviewing the information released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). We will take action against any financial institution or individual that breaches our regulations," it said on Tuesday (Nov 7) in response to Channel NewsAsia's queries.





Asiaciti has denied all wrongdoing in a statement.

A trove of leaked documents dubbed the "Paradise Papers" have disclosed embarrassing details about how the global, super-rich elite have been stashing funds in offshore tax havens.



More than 120 politicians and world leaders, including Queen Elizabeth II have been named in 1.4 terabytes of data released by ICIJ on Sunday. The documents also reveal how multinational companies like Apple and Nike are avoiding taxes.

The latest haul contains 13.4 million documents mainly from Appleby, an offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond, while there are about half a million records from Singapore company Asiaciti Trust, ICIJ said.



MAS said that it requires all entities licensed to carry out trust business to conduct "adequate due diligence" on their customers to detect and mitigate money laundering risks, and to ensure that their offshore vehicles are used for legitimate purposes.



"If there are any grounds for suspicion, the trust company must file a suspicious transaction report, step up monitoring of the customer and take appropriate risk mitigation measures," an MAS spokesman said.

ICIJ described Asiaciti as a "family-run offshore specialist that is headquartered in Singapore and has satellite offices from Samoa in the South Pacific to Nevis in the Caribbean".

Its clients include Chinese millionaires, family members of a Kazakh official convicted of corruption and a broad swath of Americans, including doctors, poker players and a Colorado alfalfa farmer, the consortium said.

Asiaciti said that it complies with "applicable laws and regulations" at all times, in an online statement issued on Monday.

"We are regulated by highly competent authorities in the jurisdictions in which we operate and are committed to achieving the standards required. We absolutely deny any implication of wrong doing," the statement said.

It added that the documents seen by the ICIJ, which account for about 4 per cent of the information in the Paradise Papers, were stolen.



"Asiaciti Trust is also committed to the protection of our clients’ data. Our investigations suggest that the documents cited have been illegally obtained via external theft," it said.