Yeo jailed for money laundering, cheating
Former wealth manager at BSI Bank Singapore pleads guilty, gets 4½ years
SINGAPORE: A court here jailed a former wealth manager of Swiss bank BSI for 4 years yesterday for money laundering and cheating in a case linked to an investigation involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
The former banker, Yeo Jiawei, is serving a 30-month term on charges of perverting the course of justice by urging witnesses to lie to police and destroying evidence during the investigation into illicitly transferred funds linked to the sovereign wealth fund.
Yeo, 34, who denied perverting the course of justice last year, pleaded guilty to money laundering and cheating yesterday.
“The two schemes to secretly profit were dishonestly concealed from BSI Singapore ... and resulted in the accused earning in excess of US$3.5 million (RM15 million) in illicit profits,” the public prosecutor said.
Prosecutors also allege that Yeo played a central role in the illicit movement of S$23.9 million (RM74.3 million) of 1MDB-linked funds, both while he was working at the now defunct BSI Bank Singapore, and afterwards.
Singapore’s central bank announced in May that it has ended its review of banks with 1MDB-linked transactions.
As part of its two-year review, Singapore shut down the local units of BSI Bank and Falcon Bank due to failures in money laundering controls and improper conduct by senior management, froze millions of dollars in bank accounts and charged several private bankers.
A spokesman for BSI Bank was not immediately available for comment on Yeo’s sentencing.
Stefano Coduri, group chief executive of BSI Bank stepped down after the closure of its Singapore operations last year and the bank said it had undertaken steps to strengthen management, including introducing a new chief risk officer and appointing a new group legal counsel.
Two other ex-BSI staffers have been convicted and sentenced on charges stemming from the money-laundering investigation linked to 1MDB. – Reuters