Former BSI wealth manager Yeo Jiawei, who is involved in a probe into Malaysia's troubled state investment fund 1MDB, has been slapped with three additional charges.
According to court documents, the three new charges include cheating BSI Bank, an attempt to intentionally pervert the course of justice and money laundering. He was initially charged with money laundering on April 22, before two more charges were levelled against him on April 28.
Yeo allegedly cheated his employer by hiding the fact that he would receive a portion of the fees paid to Pacific Harbor Holdings via Bridgerock Investment, a company that Yeo owns. BSI entered into an agreement with Pacific Harbor on Mar 25, 2013.
He was also charged for attempting to prevent the course of justice intentionally. He had been accused of asking Kevin Swampillai to lie to the police about a sum of money which had been transferred by Samuel Goh Sze-Wei to Bridgerock Investment Inc and GTB Investment.
The third additional charge was of transferring $500,000 from a Malayan Banking Berhad account in the name of Bridgerock Investment Inc to an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) account. The court documents have declared that this amount "represents his benefits from criminal conduct".
With these three new charges, there are six charges on Yeo, who was kept in custody for 21 days for the earlier three charges.
According to Asia One, Second Solicitor-General Kwek Mean Luck said the 33-year-old has played a key role in activities that were not limited to money laundering across jurisdictions. It also involved "staggering amounts" but had also allegedly received "secret profits" of $4 million through Bridgerock Investment Inc (an entity beneficially owned by Yeo) when he was in BSI.
"It is believed that the total amount that he has received from illicit transactions, are well in excess of this amount," added Mr Kwek.
He also said Yeo, who will remain in custody, has also taken "extraordinary steps to cover his involvement and to also disguise the flows of illicit monies" to himself and his family members.
Kwek also submitted that Yeo has shown "no qualms in attempting to subvert the course of justice, no qualms in asking other witnesses to lie and to interfere with investigations."
On the other hand, Yeo's lawyer, Philip Fong of Harry Elias Partnership, argued that if the other employees of the company who were being questioned in this investigation Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department are not in remand, then his client should also be considered for the same.
"So, it is not necessary for my client to be kept in remand when there are many other employees doing so without being kept in remand," he said.
