Yeo Jaiwei today completed a triumvirate of former BSI bankers to be found guilty and jailed in Singapore. Yeo has been handed a thirty-month prison sentence for four charges.
Yeo now joins fellow ex-BSI bankers Yak Yew Chee and Yvonne Seah Yew Foong in custody in Singapore, with the prospect of yet more legal trouble in 2017 when his other charges, which include money-laundering and cheating, will be heard at a trial beginning in April.
In a report from «The Straits Times,» the judge described the former BSI wealth planner who went on to work directly for 1MDB financial kingpin Jho Low as «unreliable» and «not credible» as a witness.
Among the many revelations that came out during testimony at his trial was one that Yeo (pictured below, from court material) had allegedly made $23.9 million in the space of 15 months.
BSI Bankers Had Free Reign
The third day of Yeo’s trial in Singapore brought embarrassing revelations for BSI. Kevin Swampillai, formerly Yeo's supervisor told the court that he, Yeo and other bankers had «free rein» in moving what authorities termed «staggering» sums of money for clients like 1MDB.
«There was a lack of central control over functions, for better or for worse,» Swampillai said, dubbing BSI’s management «a lame duck committee».
Singapore Has Done What it Could
The Singapore authorities have worked briskly in bringing to account banks and individuals tainted by business dealings with the now notorious Malaysian wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad or 1MDB as it is more commonly known.
With the reputation of the city-state on the line, the regulator acted briskly and authoritatively in shutting down BSI's Singapore operations.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also went out of its way to comment on the Singapore operations of the Lugano, Switzerland-based institution, saying it had been «the worst case of control lapses and gross misconduct that we have seen in the Singapore financial sector.»
In October, the MAS stripped the Singapore branch of Falcon Bank of its bank status and arrested the bank's branch manager, Jens Sturzenegger. The regulator again pulled no punches, saying there were serious failures in anti-money laundering controls and improper conduct by senior management.
The local units of Standard Chartered, UBS, Southeast Asia's largest lender DBS and Coutts were all also found to have shown «lapses and weaknesses in anti-money laundering controls» in dealing with 1MDB money.
More to follow...
