Compliance
Singapore Bans 1MDB Jailbird From Capital Markets, Financial Advisory For Life
To date, five people have been jailed over connections to 1MDB.
Singapore plans to issue a lifetime ban against a former BSI wealth manager who is currently serving a 54-month prison sentence for allegedly helping launder money siphoned from a Malaysian state-owned development fund.
In July, Singapore slapped Yeo Jiawei, 34, with the prison sentence after he plead guilty to and was convicted on charges of money laundering and cheating. Eight other charges were taken into consideration. Last December, he was also given a 30-month jail sentence for witness tampering.
Now, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the city-state's regulator and de facto central bank, has said it will permanently prohibit Yeo from providing any capital market and financial advisory services, and from managing, acting as a director of, or becoming a “substantial” stakeholder of any capital market and advisory firm in Singapore.
The Singapore native had been employed by Switzerland-based BSI between 2009 and July 2014, during which period he allegedly amassed some S$26 million ($19.1 million) from various sources including illicit schemes to defraud BSI.
Last year, BSI was ordered by Singapore to shut shop in the city-state over its connections to 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, the sovereign wealth fund at the centre of global probes into alleged money laundering. Authorities worldwide have said some $4.5 billion has been misappropriated from the fund since its launch in 2008.
Yeo was said to be close associate of Low Taek Jho, more commonly known as Jho Low, a Malaysian financier and property tycoon described as a “key person of interest” in ongoing investigations into 1MDB. Authorities had moved to seize assets tied to Low, including upmarket New York properties, diamonds, rare artwork and a private jet, all of which were allegedly acquired using funds stolen from 1MDB.
Yeo left BSI in 2014 to work for Low. Low allegedly prompted Yeo
to tamper with key witnesses in Singapore's probe into illicit
transactions linked to 1MDB.
