Singapore: Ex-banker jailed 18 weeks in probe on Malaysian 1MDB state fund scandal
11th November 2016
A SINGAPORE court has sentenced former private banker Yak Yew Chee to 18 weeks jail on charges of forgery and failing to report suspicious transactions amounting to tens of millions of dollars involving the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal.
According to Channel News Asia, the 57-year-old Yak, who handled the accounts of 1MDB-linked Malaysian tycoon Jho Low at BSI Bank, was also slapped with a S$24,000 ($17,000) by the court. Yak was among four people implicated in Singapore’s probe on 1MDB.
The court handed down the sentence after Yak pleaded guilty to four out of seven charges against him.
Among the charges, Yak was accused of forging reference letters supporting Low’s family and ignoring funds allegedly received from criminal activities that was channelled through BSI Bank in Singapore.
Singaporean monetary authorities have named Low as a person of interest in the investigation which alleged that billions had been embezzled from 1MDB.
The court heard that Yak, of the Swiss bank BSI in Singapore, had sent a forged letter to the head of yacht and shipping finance service at BNP Paribas in Switzerland in February 14. The letted vouched that Low’s family was worth US$1.63 billion (S$2.3 billion).
Yak also admitted to forging another letter to Swiss wealth management firm Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) CEO, Stefan Liniger, to deceive Liniger in believing that the letter was signed by BSI bank, CNA reported.
In the letter to Liniger, Yak said Low’s family had a good standing at the BSI Bank in Singapore and Switzerland. Yak also told Liniger that Low, had received US$150 million from his father Low Hock Peng. Of the total amount of funds, a firm owned by Low called Selune had US$110 million wired to the Swiss account.
Yak had also reportedly admitted to turning a blind eye to suspicious transactions by his millionaire clients in addition to the forgery charges.
The court was told that on Nov 2, 2012 some US$153 million was transferred from the younger Low’s firm called Good Star to the BSI bank account of Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Investment Corporation via a Coutts Zurich account. The funds were deposited back into Low Hock Peng’s account three days later.
TODAY | Ex-BSI banker Yak Yew Chee jailed 18 weeks, fined S$24,000 in 1MDB-related probe http://bit.ly/2fCnkkH
Another account held by Low at BSI bank had US$150 million deposited on Nov 7, of which US$110 million was later landed in Selune’s Swiss bank account.
1MDB is currently the subject of numerous multi-agency probes across the world, as well as a civil lawsuit filed recently by the United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ).
According to U.S. prosecutors, fund officials have diverted more than US$3.5 billion through a web of shell companies and bank accounts abroad.
Despite the allegations, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who chairs the fund, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the handling of 1MDB, from which hundreds of millions dollars were found deposited in his personal bank accounts.
