A Singaporean court yesterday convicted a jailed banker of additional offences in a case linked to the international money-laundering scandal involving Malaysia’s state fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Singaporean Yeo Jiawei (楊家偉), a former wealth manager with Swiss bank BSI, was sentenced to 54 months after admitting charges of money-laundering and cheating.
The jail term will run concurrently with a 30-month sentence for trying to tamper with witnesses involved in the probe into the scandal, which was handed down in December last year and is the longest jail term so far to come from Singapore’s probe.
Allegations that huge sums were misappropriated from 1MDB through money-laundering triggered a corruption scandal that has embroiled Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded the fund.
He and the fund have consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Yeo’s admission of guilt comes after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) wrapped up a two-year probe into fund flows related to 1MDB.
Prosecutors identified Yeo as a central figure linked to Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho (劉特佐), who has been characterized by US investigators as the controller of a plan to drain billions from 1MDB.
Low, also known as Jho Low, has previously described his role with 1MDB as informal consulting that did not break any laws.
Yeo had referred to Low as “boss” and spent at least one night at his house, according to earlier court proceedings.
Yeo said it was a misunderstanding that he worked for Low.
Passing sentence yesterday, judge Ong Hian Sun (王賢山) said Yeo had taken “considerable effort” to conceal his criminal wrongdoing and had exploited his position for personal gain.
He added that the courts must take an “uncompromising stance” to protect the integrity of Singapore’s financial system.
The convictions related to Yeo’s time at BSI. While there, he was involved in a series of elaborate cross-border transactions involving shell companies and bank accounts belonging to his parents, court documents showed.
Yeo and a colleague made US$466,000 in profit by syphoning off commission that was meant to go to BSI for facilitating the transactions, which were linked to 1MDB and its associated projects.
Yeo accumulated a net worth of S$23.9 million (US$17.3 million) through “secret profits” in the 15 months after he left BSI in June 2014, prosecutors said in an earlier hearing.
Yeo had said the money was earned legitimately.
In mitigation, Yeo’s defense lawyer Derek Kang said his client would never work again in the finance industry and that he would give up profits made from the offences.
The 1MDB scandal has been described by prosecutors as the “largest ever money-laundering case” investigated by Singapore’s white-collar crime unit.
MAS said in March that it has barred seven bankers linked to the case, five of whom, including Yeo, had been convicted of various offences involving 1MDB.
Singapore has imposed a total of S$29.1 million in penalties on eight banks as part of its probes. Credit Suisse Group AG and United Overseas Bank Ltd were among the firms that paid penalties, while BSI and Falcon Private Bank Ltd were also ordered to shut their local operations.
The US and Switzerland have also launched investigations into the 1MDB fund, but only Singapore handed down any convictions so far.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS