Swiss bank probing staff over 1MDB-related dealings

SINGAPORE: The Swiss bank BSI SA is investigating employees and their dealings related to 1MDB, Bloomberg reports.

Quoting “people familiar with the matter”, the report said one of the employees being investigated in Singapore was Kevin Swampillai, the manager of Yeo Jiawei who is the first banker to be charged by the Singapore authorities over financial dealings related to 1MDB.

Although Swampillai, the managing director of wealth management services, has been suspended pending investigation, he hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing by Singapore authorities.

BSI’s ongoing inquiry comes as authorities across the globe examine claims that 1MDB was used to funnel money to politically-connected individuals.

BSI had introduced 1MDB to a Cayman Islands fund which received a US$2.32 billion investment, according to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee of Malaysia, which recently issued a report following its own findings.

The report said BSI was keeping the Monetary Authority of Singapore informed of the progress of its inquiry.

It said Swampillai’s lawyer Kenneth Pereira declined to comment.

BSI, speaking through its external public relations representative in Singapore, told Bloomberg on Monday that it had no comment to make on the matter.

Yeo Jiawei, a former BSI wealth planner, became the first banker to be charged, about a month ago, in connection with the probe. Yeo was said to have proposed investment products to 1MDB while at the bank.

Yeo, 33, was accused of asking Swampillai in March to falsely inform the police that sums transferred to an entity beneficially owned by Yeo was another man’s investments.

Yeo has also been accused of money laundering and cheating BSI by hiding a US$1.6 million annual payment he would receive, which was alleged to be a portion of the management fee paid by 1MDB subsidiary Brazen Sky to the manager of the Cayman fund.

The report said several senior employees of BSI had quit or were in the process of leaving, including three members of the bank committee that vetted major new clients at a time when money flowed in from 1MDB and related entities.

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