Speaking at the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) conference, Mr Lee, who is the party’s secretary-general, stressed the need to keep Singapore’s system clean, including keeping corrupting influences out of Singapore.

Mr Lee mentioned how he was asked by a journalist if Singapore – when promoting family offices and its financial industry – is letting standards slip in order to “attract unclean money” to come to the country.

“My answer was, ‘not on your life’. We will never let our standards slip. It is not worth it.

“If we let it happen … the doubtful characters would come, they will spend generously to make themselves appear respectable, to show that they love Singapore, to ingratiate themselves to us, to try to get PR (permanent residence) and citizenship,” he said.

“They will cultivate ministers and officials. They will donate to good causes. They will make themselves useful in all sorts of ways … and very soon our whole system will be tainted, and then corrupted. It’s not worth it.”