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Ex-banker with 1MDB links faces 3 more charges

SINGAPORE — Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth planner at Swiss private bank BSI, has been slapped with three more charges and his remand was extended yesterday, as investigations “involving staggering sums of money are still ongoing”, the prosecution said.

SINGAPORE — Yeo Jiawei, a former wealth planner at Swiss private bank BSI, has been slapped with three more charges and his remand was extended yesterday, as investigations “involving staggering sums of money are still ongoing”, the prosecution said.

Yeo, 33, already faced a charge for receiving ill-gotten funds and two other charges last month, following a global investigation into Malaysia’s state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). During the court hearing yesterday, he was charged with cheating BSI in 2013 by dishonestly hiding from the bank that he would receive a portion of the fees paid to Pacific Harbor Global Growth Limited, through a company he owned called Bridgerock Investment Inc.

He was also charged with attempting to intentionally pervert the course of justice, when he asked Mr Kevin Swampillai to lie to the police that the monies Singaporean businessman Samuel Goh Sze-Wei transferred to Bridgerock Investment Inc and GTB Investment were Mr Goh’s investments. Mr Swampillai was the managing director of wealth management services at BSI bank at the time, Bloomberg reported.

In the third charge, Yeo is alleged to have transferred US$500,000 (S$680,000) from a Malayan Banking Berhad account, in the name of Bridgerock Investment Inc, to an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation account in the name of Yishun Aquarium in 2012.

The charge sheets made no mention of 1MDB or any related entities or individuals, but Bloomberg reported last month that Yeo was charged with money laundering following probes into 1MDB’s money flows.

The court also heard that Yeo received “secret profits” of about US$4 million from Bridgerock Investment Inc when he was with BSI, and the total sum he received was “well in excess of this amount”. Second Solicitor-General Kwek Mean Luck said Yeo “has also taken extraordinary steps to cover his involvement and to also disguise the flows of illicit monies to himself and his family members”.

Mr Kwek yesterday asked the court to further remand Yeo, and District Judge Christopher Goh granted the prosecution’s application.

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) will allow Yeo access to counsel during this period. Last week, the court had blocked Yeo from access to his lawyer Philip Fong.

Mr Kwek said an “additional period” of remand is needed because further investigations “continue to be necessary and further evidence is likely to be obtained”.

He added that there is a “continuing risk” of Yeo tampering with other witnesses, having mentioned that the accused had “no qualms in asking other witnesses to lie and to interfere with investigations”. “His past behaviour shows that the risk is a very real one. Indeed there is ground to believe that his wife has made contact with other witnesses for reasons that may need further probing,” he said.

Mr Kwek also told the court that investigators “have reason to suspect” that significant sums of money — S$200,000 and US$200,000 — transferred on behalf of Yeo to Mr Fong’s law firm were “likely to constitute proceeds linked to criminal conduct”.

“This underpinned part of our earlier concerns with granting access to counsel,” he added, saying CAD may ask the firm to give a statement in due course. On the transferred funds, Mr Fong said it is a “bare assertion”, adding that the firm is “not able to respond” unless they speak to his client, who has been kept in remand for at least 21 days.

Mr Fong also said the CAD has not asked the firm to clarify the matter.

Yeo will return to court on May 12.

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