A former BSI private banker plans to appeal his conviction for interfering with witnesses in the 1MDB corruption scandal. Another court trial on charges of money-laundering awaits him next year.
Yeo Jiawei was found guilty and sentenced to two and a half years in jail last month for directing former associates to destroy evidence and lie to criminal investigators in Singapore. Now, the former wealth planner at Banca della Svizzera Italiana, or BSI, is appealing the verdict, his lawyer told «Bloomberg».
His is the longest sentence handed down thus far in the 1MDB case: his former boss Yak Yew Chee got less than five months, while Yvonne Seah Yew Foong got two weeks for forging papers and neglecting to report suspicious transactions by 1MDB protagonists. Neither banker is appealing their sentences, which were also handed down last month.
BSI Shut, UBS Rapped
It emerged during Yeo's trial that the former banker had engaged in a lucrative kickback scheme on 1MBD's business with at least two colleagues, that BSI private bankers were able to do as they pleased in dealing with the ill-gotten funds without management or compliance interference, and that Yeo had eventually gone to work directly for Jho Low, a Malaysian businessman who is believed to have been the mastermind behind 1MBD's opaque financial dealings.
The scandal has already toppled BSI, the former employer of all three bankers as well as prompted the regulator to shut Falcon Private Bank out of Singapore and sanctioned several others, including UBS.
Another trial on money-laundering charges awaits Yeo in April.
