S’pore bans two more individuals over 1MDB-related breaches

SINGAPORE: Singapore banned two more individuals over breaches related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, as the city seeks to burnish its image from the scandal.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore issued six-year prohibition orders on Kelvin Ang, a former trader, and former research analyst Lee Chee Waiy, according to an emailed statement yesterday. That takes to six the number of people the regulator has barred from its finance industry over 1MDB-related matters.

Ang, formerly of Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte, was fined S$9,000 (US$6,600) in May after he admitted making a corrupt payment to Lee of NRA Capital Pte to speed up the preparation of a favourable valuation report.

MAS also intends to permanently ban Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth planner with Swiss bank BSI SA, it said. Yeo was sentenced in July to 54 months in jail on charges included money laundering cheating his former employer.

Singapore is taking steps to safeguard its reputation in the wake of the largest money laundering probe in its history.

The city-state has shut the local units of two Swiss banks, seized hundreds of millions in assets and convicted five people over 1MDBrelated offenses.

In March, MAS banned former that and Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Tim Leissner from its securities industry for 10 years after saying he issued an unauthorised letter and made false statements on behalf of the US bank.

“MAS expects professionals in the financial services industry to uphold high standards of integrity and proper conduct,” Ong Chong Tee, deputy managing director for financial supervision, said in the statement. — Bloomberg