Singaporean regulators yesterday said they will fine two banks a total of more than US$5.3 million for having breached money laundering rules in dealings with an indebted Malaysian state fund.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) fined the local branch of Standard Chartered PLC, which is headquartered in London, S$5.2 million (US$3.7 million) for “significant lapses” in customer due diligence measures and controls.
Regulators also fined the Singapore branch of private bank Coutts & Co S$2.4 million for inadequate customer due diligence on “politically exposed persons.”
Coutts is winding down its Singapore operations after the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC sold it to Union Bancaire Privee in March last year.
Singapore’s actions result from findings of a multinational probe into allegations that people close to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak stole more than US$1 billion from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
“The control lapses stemmed from inadequacies in policies and procedures, insufficient independent oversight of front office staff and a lack of awareness of money laundering risks among some bank staff,” the authority said in a statement.
In February, Singapore authorities said they had “seized a large number of bank accounts” in connection with the Malaysian fund probe.
Regulators are expected give a final update on their findings early next year.
The authority also said it planned to impose a 10-year ban on conducting banking business and functions on a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc executive.
Tim Leissner led Goldman Sachs’ Singapore branch until February although he moved to Hong Kong in 2011. He managed three 1MDB bond issuances from 2012 to 2013 and issued an unauthorized reference letter to a financial institution in Luxembourg in June last year.
The authority said Leissner falsely claimed the bank had conducted due diligence on businessman Low Taek Jho (劉特佐), who is close to Najib’s family.
It said it was working with foreign “regulatory authorities” to investigate Goldman Sachs’ role in the bond transactions for 1MDB.
Goldman Sachs said it discovered the violation of its own standards in January, “took steps to separate Mr Leissner from the firm,” and reported the problem to regulators in several places, including Singapore.
“We continue to cooperate with the MAS,” the company said in a statement.
Leissner’s attorney said he had not received any notices or been questioned by the authority.
“Prior to today, Mr Leissner had not heard of any contemplated regulatory action by the MAS and had not been contacted by the MAS or given any opportunity to respond to the MAS regarding the allegations raised in the notice,” Marc Harris of the Scheper Harris & Kim law firm in Los Angeles, California, said in a statement.
“He has been invited by the MAS to respond to the allegations raised in the notice and he looks forward to doing so,” the statement said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured