Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

SINGAPORE (Oct 31): The closely-watched trial of Yeo Jiawei, the first person slapped with criminal charges related to the 1 Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) affair, kicked off on Monday afternoon.

While the former wealth planner with BSI Bank faces a total of 11 charges, the charges being heard now are the four charges related to perverting the course of justice by tampering with witnesses.

The prosecution has lined up nine witnesses for these four charges. Four of these nine witnesses took the stand on Monday. The first witness called was Tan Ghim Lay, former secretary of Kevin Swampillai, who is Yeo’s former colleague at BSI.

Tan said she has worked for Swampillai – first at RBS Coutts, and then at BSI Singapore – for around ten years.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in May this year said Yeo and Swampillai, along with four other BSI employees, are under investigation. Two other former BSI employees Yak Yew Chee and Yvonne Seah have already been charged but are out on bail.

On Tuesday, the second day of the trial, Swampillai will be called as the fifth witness. There is no word yet on whether the remaining two, Hans Peter Brunner, former CEO of the BSI Singapore branch and Raj Sriram, former deputy CEO, will face charges or be called as witnesses.

“Urgent” pre-paid line

According to statements made in court on Monday, Swampillai on Oct 30 2015 gave Tan an “urgent” instruction to buy a pre-paid mobile phone SIM card. She did so on the very day during her lunchbreak at a shop near BSI’s office at Suntec City.

Under Singapore regulations, pre-paid SIM cards cannot be bought anonymously and has to be registered under a person’s name. One person cannot have more than three pre-paid lines registered under his or her name.

According to Tan’s testimony, the SIM card she bought for Swampillai was registered under her name. She said she did not question why Swampillai wanted that additional pre-paid mobile line. She assumed that he was using it to make calls to his family, some of whom reside outside Singapore.

In the cross examination, Yeo’s defence lawyer, Harry Fong of Harry Elias Partnership, tried to ascertain Tan’s working relationship with Swampillai and what her job scope included. “You carried out his instruction without really thinking,” asked Fong. “We have quite a good working rapport,” Tan replied.

Besides Tan, the other three witnesses called on Monday were Yeo Poh Meng, Customer Service Executive officer at Singtel, whose job scope includes responding to law enforcement authorities’ requests to trace calls.

The other two witnesses were forensic investigators with the Singapore Police Force Senior Station Inspector Joe Ng Suan Teck, Technology Crime forensic branch, Criminal Investigation Department, and Darius Cai Yong Qing Forensic examiner, Technology Crime forensic branch, Criminal Investigation Department.

According to evidence submitted in court, three pre-paid lines on two mobile phones were used.

Complex and sophisticated

Yeo, who turns 34 on Nov 21, was a wealth planner with BSI Singapore between Dec 2009 and July 2014. He appeared in court on Monday in chains and wearing a purple jumpsuit. He has been held in remand since April.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Kiat Pheng, in his opening statement, described Yeo as a central figure in the “most complex, sophisticated and largest money laundering case” that Singapore law enforcers have handled. Along the way, Yeo, a Singaporean, is said to have pocketed some S$26 million himself.

1MDB was reportedly a significant and profitable customer of the Singapore branch of the Swiss private bank, until it was shut down by MAS in May this year.

According to the prosecution, Yeo was first interviewed by officials from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) on Oct 6, 2015, in connection with money laundering.

Sometime in the middle of March, CAD’s investigations had extended to two entities called Bridgerock Investment Inc (Bridgerock) and GTB Investment (GTB). These two entities’ beneficial owners are Yeo and his then-supervisor, Swampillai, respectively.

While BSI was helping to facilitate transactions involving its client and other parties, Bridgerock and GTB were used to receive a “significant portion” of fees behind the bank’s back.

On March 17, Yeo was arrested as a suspect, but was out on bail the following day.

Under the terms of the release, the accused was obliged to comply with certain basic conditions: two of which were not to commit any offence while released on bail, and not to interfere with any witness or otherwise obstruct the course of justice whether in relation to himself or another.

Yet, on March 27, Yeo was alleged to have met Swampillai and a business associate called Samuel Goh Sze-Wei at the Swiss Club, and he asked them both to give false information to CAD when asked. Specifically, Yeo asked Goh to say that money transferred to Bridgerock and GTB were Goh’s own investments.

Yeo faces two other charges of witness tampering. He is alleged to have in March this year contacted one Pinto Jose Renato Carvalho to dispose of his laptop which would likely contain evidence of Yeo’s dealings with Amicorp Group, and not to travel to Singapore to avoid being interviewed by the Commercial Affairs Department.

He is also alleged to abet Carvalho to intentionally pervert the course of justice, by instigating him to tell Mun Enci Aloysius to inform the CAD that he did not know of Yeo’s dealings with Amicorp Group if he was to be questioned by CAD.

Yeo’s trial is scheduled to last till Nov 11.

 

      Print
      Text Size
      Share