Singapore sentenced former BSI banker over 1MDB scandal

Former BSI banker Yeo Jiawei was on Wednesday sentenced to four-and-a-half years jail for money laundering and cheating, in a case linked to an investigation involving Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Yeo, 34, had set up multiple suspicious transactions involving 1MDB, and admitted he secretly profited at least $3.5 million from the illicit transactions. He laundered a portion of the money by transferring at least $500,000 into his parents' bank account. 

Prosecutors identified Yeo as a central figure linked to Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who was characterised by US investigators as the controller of a plan to drain billions from 1MDB.

The Malaysian fund, at the heart of several money laundering and corruption probes across the globe, has consistently denied any wrongdoing.  Low has previously described his role with 1MDB as informal consulting that didn’t break any laws.

The former wealth planner is already serving a 30-month term on charges of perverting the course of justice by tampering with key witnesses in order to frustrate the Commercial Affairs Department’s (CAD) investigation into his alleged involvement.

According to Bloomberg, five people, including Yeo, have been convicted in Singapore, the only country so far to have criminally charged bankers.
The Asian country had imposed a total of $29.1 million in penalties on eight banks following its 1MDB probes. It is the first and only country to date out of at least 10 jurisdictions involved in the probe, that has convicted several facilitators of this scandal.