BSI – small bank in a hurry to become big
The tale includes details of rushed deals, lax scrutiny, million-dollar bonuses and huge sums channelled into obscure offshore funds with few questions asked.
And it is linked to 1Malaysia Development Bhd, the Malaysian Government investment arm.
The report said the 1MDB affair had stretched from Malaysia to Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Switzerland, the Caribbean, Hong Kong and the US and touched the upper reaches of global finance.
But the bank that has drawn the most scrutiny in international probes into 1MDBs transactions is BSI and its operation in Singapore, where several well-connected bankers are now under investigation.
One of the links in the chain, according to the report, is Yak Yew Chee who brought BSI and 1MDB together. Yak, 57, had longstanding ties with people involved in the Malaysian state fund.
Among those connections was the flamboyant Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low.
The Bloomberg report said Low was the beneficial owner of multiple accounts at BSI and regularly made sizable transfers between them, as well as accounts he controlled at other banks.
The report said Bloomberg contacted Low’s office but he wasn’t available for comment, according to a woman who answered the phone.
Yak’s lawyer from Legal Clinic LLC said he couldn’t comment. BSI said it continues to cooperate with authorities and declined to comment further. 1MDB said it had nothing to add to its previous statements on its ties with BSI.
Yak’s connections helped BSI’s Singapore unit snag business worth about USD2.5 to USD3 billion (RM10.115 to RM12.138 billion) from 1MDB and Low, making him a star in the 143-year-old Swiss bank.
Yak earned S$27 million (RM80.755 million) from 2011 to 2015 at BSI.
While Yak may have helped bring in the 1MDB business, the investigation into where the money went was largely centred on Yeo Jiawei, a wealth planner at BSI who has appeared at social events with Low and who had recommended investment products to 1MDB, the report said.
Yeo was the first banker to be charged in relation to cases stemming from investigations into 1MDB.
He’s been held by authorities since April 15, with nine charges against him, including money laundering, forgery and cheating BSI by hiding a USD1.6 million annual payment he would have received from a Cayman Islands fund.
The fund got USD2.3 billion in 2012 from a subsidiary of 1MDB called Brazen Sky, according to a Malaysian parliamentary hearing report.
Five others at BSI also face possible criminal action after being referred to prosecutors by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The report said that BSI as a whole was being bought by EFG International AG. The takeover, proceeding at a reduced price, was approved by Swiss regulators on May 24, the same day that BSI’s group CEO resigned and the Singapore authorities announced that its Singapore branch would be closed.
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