SINGAPORE — The authorities in Singapore have seized bank accounts and properties from individuals totalling S$240 million following investigations into scandal-hit Malaysia’s state investment fund 1MDB, with about half of these assets owned by Malaysian financier Mr Low Taek Jho and his immediate family. 

The disclosure yesterday in a joint statement by the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC), anti-white-collar crime agency Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) came hours after United States prosecutors announced on Wednesday (July 20)  that they were seeking to seize more than US$1 billion (S$1.35 billion) in assets linked to a global conspiracy to launder funds related to 1MDB. 

“This marks another milestone in Singapore’s push towards cleaning up and maintaining a robust financial system. The law enforcement agencies can only seize assets or properties when it is established on a legal basis that the crime has been committed and investigation crystallised … We could expect more people to be charged with criminal offences,” Mr Nizam Ismail, head of regulatory practices in Singapore and co-founder of compliance solutions at law firm RHTLaw TaylorWessing, told TODAY.

The three agencies warned that appropriate action will be taken against those who have broken Singapore’s laws. To date, two individuals — former BSI private banker Yeo Jiawei and one Kelvin Ang — have been charged for various offences linked to 1MDB, while several others are being questioned or investigated. An AGC spokesperson declined to give further details beyond the official announcement.

The MAS also said yesterday it found lapses and weaknesses in anti-money laundering controls at DBS, the Singapore operations of UBS and Standard Chartered Bank, Falcon Private Bank Singapore and Raffles Money Change. Singapore has been investigating 1MDB-related fund flows through the city-state for possible money laundering, securities fraud, cheating and other offences since March 2015.

CIMB Private Bank economist Song Seng Wun said: “Singapore is an important financial centre managing immense volumes of funds flow and various other related activities. The authorities here will have to ensure robust systems are in place to identify and abort illicit actions, failing which, there is the risk of reputation loss.”

Fund flows under investigation include those connected to Good Star Limited (Seychelles), Aabar Investments PJS Limited (BVI), Aabar Investments PJS Limited (Seychelles), and Tanore Finance Corp. (BVI), the AGC, CAD and MAS said in their joint statement. 

The flamboyant Mr Low, who has partied with the likes of socialite Paris Hilton and pop star Elva Hsiao, owns Good Star, which allegedly fraudulently received US$1.03 billion from 1MDB, according to the US lawsuit. It is not clear if the Good Star investigated by Singapore and that named in the US lawsuit are the same.

Mr Low — often referred to as Jho Low — is a long-time friend of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s stepson Riza Aziz. Mr Low had previously said that he provided consulting services to 1MDB, whose advisory board was previously chaired by Mr Najib, and didn’t break any laws.

Efforts to reach him for comment yesterday via his Hong Kong-based company Jynwel Capital were unsuccessful, and the firm did not immediately reply to an e-mailed query on the asset seizure in Singapore.

Mr Low owns two units in the upscale TwentyOne Angullia Park along Orchard Boulevard which he bought for S$54 million in 2013, according to media reports. US prosecutors allege that a small coterie of Malaysians led by Mr Low diverted money from 1MDB into personal accounts disguised to look like legitimate businesses, and kicked back some of those funds to officials.

1MDB, the fund at the centre of the probes, said yesterday it is not a party to the US suit and does not have any assets in the US. The firm “will fully cooperate with any foreign lawful authority, subject to international protocols governing such matters and the advice of the relevant domestic lawful authorities”, it said. WITH AGENCIES