Singapore: Private jet seized over 1MDB scandal

Singapore has reportedly seized a $35 million private jet belonging to 1MDB mastermind Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, who is under investigation for his involvement in the scandal-hit Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) 

The Bombardier Global 5000 jet is part of some $1 billion in assets allegedly acquired with funds siphoned from 1MDB fund that the US government is moving to seize. The police declined to comment on whether the authorities had grounded the plane, stating that investigations are still in progress.

The US alleges that the funds were laundered through the US banking system and is seeking to confiscate Low’s private jet, as well as other properties including a $100-million interest in EMI Music Publishing Group, and a $380-million stake in the Park Lane Hotel in New York.

Questions about movement of funds from 1MDB came to widespread attention when the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2013 nearly $700 million had flowed from the debt-ridden fund to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal bank account.

The US Department of Justice in July 2016 filed a series of complaints alleging that funds diverted from 1MDB were used for the personal benefit of public officials and their relatives and associates to purchase luxury real estate in the US, pay gambling expenses at Las Vegas casinos and acquire more than $200 million in artwork.

The Malaysian sovereign wealth fund is at the centre of several international investigations by prosecutors in at least four countries – Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the US – into alleged corruption and money laundering by public officials.

In November, the Singapore authorities for the first time named Mr Low as a “key person of interest”. That disclosure came on the eighth day of trial of ex-BSI banker Yeo Jiawei.

Yeo was sentenced to a total of 30 months’ jail after he was convicted on four charges of witness tampering in what has been described as the largest and most complex money-laundering case seen so far.

Yeo was found to have frustrated investigations into illegal money flows from account, individuals and entities linked to Malaysia’s scandal-hit sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

Prosecutors said Yeo had amassed a net worth of some $23.9 million in just 15 months through “secret profits” after he left the bank in June 2014 to work for Jho Low.