EXPOSED: BSI Bank’s Dirty Little Secrets

Authorities in Switzerland and Singapore took action against Swiss private bank BSI SA for failing to prevent suspected hiding of money laundering and briberies (the crime of paying money to get favors)-related to its dealings with a Malaysian development fund.

Much of the money has was moved to intermediaries, who are people that get between two arguing parties to help them agree, before being spent on instances of chasing after something or trying to do something that had nothing to do with 1MDB’s stated purpose of developing the Malaysian (process of people making, selling, and buying things). They include funding the hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” and buying high end real estate in New York and London.

Malaysian businessman Jho Low was an extremely important behind-the-scenes operator for the fund and helped manage Malaysian Prime Minister and 1MDB creator and founder, Najib Razak’s accounts.

One day in late October 2014, Mr. Low opened 18 separate accounts at the Singapore subsidary of BSI using names like JW Interesting personality Investment Limited, JW Turbocharged Investment Limited and JW Champion Investment Limited, according to Singapore police documents. He needed so many accounts, Mr. Low told the bank, because he had a lot of different business trips and businesses, according to a person familiar with the events.

That would have raised many red flags for most banks–especially because Mr. Low was connected to 1MDB, making him a PEP or “politically exposed person” whose transactions had to get special attention under Singapore’s guidelines to prevent hiding illegally-obtained money, according to anti-money-laundering lawyers.

BSI accepted Mr. Low’s explanations and let the transactions go ahead and move forward, as it often had over the past several ears, the person whom was familiar with the events stated.

BSI Singapore opened more than 50 business and personal accounts for Mr. Low, as well as accounts for his loved ones; parents, brother, and sister, according to a Singapore police report as well as Malaysian investigative documents.

It opened accounts for 1MDB, the fund’s Abu Dhabi business partners and a company owned by the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister. It allowed hundreds of millions of dollars to be sent through those accounts in a web of transactions, according to bank-transaction and Malaysian (act of asking questions and trying to find the truth about something) documents were seen by the Journal as well as a person familiar with the matter. A spokesman for the stepson said none of the money/giving of the money )received by his company was in any way irregular or illegal. The business partners weren’t available for comment.

Clients involved with 1MDB had around 100 accounts at BSI, Switzerland’s FINMA reported.
One of the bank’s workers, wealth manager Yeo Jiawei, has been charged in Singapore with hiding illegally-obtained money linked to (a smaller company owned by) 1MDB. Mr. Yeo’s lawyer said he was fighting the charges. Among 1MDB’s first group efforts was with Saudi oil company PetroSaudi International Ltd. About $1 billion in 1MDB money set aside for that trip/business, however, went instead to an account of a shell company named Good Star, according to a Malaysian committee report. Petro Saudi told 1MDB in a letter, given to Malaysia’s committee that Good Star was less important and a company owned by another company. 1MDB’s management made the same statement to the committee.

Mr. Low set up an account using the Good Star name in 2009 at the Zurich branch of Coutts & Co., according to Singapore police documents and two people who know about the matter. Soon the account was handling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of business. That raised eyebrows at Coutts, one person said, because it was carefully thought about and believed to be unusual for an individual to be trusted to handle so much money connected to a public figure and or business.

As a person with ties to the public and money, Mr. Low’s account drew close attention and sparked a lot of conversations. Swiss banks were also under increasing pressure from U.S. and the European authorities. In response to questions from Coutts, Mr. Low was able to convince them that he was approved to manage the money in the account, the person who has been involved and knows the case first hand, said.

By mid-2009, an executive at Coutts’s branch in Singapore, Hanspeter Brunner ,was planning a movea€ to BSI’s Singapore unit, according to Singapore court documents having to do with an argument between BSI and a local headhunter. Mr. Brunner defected in early 2010, bringing with him many of Coutts’s local staff, according to the filings. One of those defectors was Singaporean private banker Yak Yew Chee, who had had a relationship with Mr. Low at Coutts and introduced the 1MDB business to BSI, said the same person familiar with the events.

Mr. Yak became somewhat of a famous person or celebrity at BSI, according to several former workers of the bank. He was known for his ability to make wise decisions and was praised by the bank for his ability to rake in huge amounts of new money for the bank to manage.

A lawyer for Mr. Yak said he would not like to comment at this time. Mr. Brunner couldn’t be reached.

Much of the business Mr. Yak brought in was from 1MDB and Mr. Low, according to the person, who has remained anonymous but knows the events and has given many of the information to date. Hundreds of millions of dollars came from the Good Star account at Coutts in Zurich,which starting June 2011 sent around $529 million in seven moves to an account at BSI Singapore that had been set up by Mr. Low, according to a 2015 letter from Singapore police to the Malaysian central bank.