Yeo worked for Swiss bank BSI from end-2009 until mid-2014. The bank’s clients included 1MDB-owned entities as well as Malaysian tycoon Low Taek Jho. Mr Low has been accused of embezzling billions from 1MDB and is a person of interest in Singapore’s ongoing money laundering investigation.
During Yeo’s 12-day trial, his former boss, Kevin Michael Swampillai, revealed that the pair had pocketed US$5 million apiece in a secret deal they brokered with 1MDB-owned Brazen Sky.
Mr Swampillai, former director of wealth management services at BSI, said he and Yeo were hungry for a cut of the US$2.3 billion deal BSI had inked with Brazen Sky and Bridge Partners International Management in 2012.
So they brokered the deal without the bank’s knowledge, with the help of their colleague Yak Yew Chee, a senior private banker who personally handled the accounts of Mr Low and entities linked to 1MDB.
COVERING UP A COMPLEX WEB OF DEALINGS
Yeo and Mr Swampillai pulled off the secret deal with the help of Mr Samuel Goh, whom Yeo roped in as an intermediary to distance himself and Mr Swampillai from the illicit deal.
Mr Swampillai and Mr Goh had both given evidence about a meeting they had with Yeo at the Swiss club in March, during which he allegedly told them to “play poker” with the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), so investigators would not uncover more incriminating evidence against him.
After Yeo left BSI in mid-2014, he went to work for Mr Low, prosecutors said. However, the defence disputed this, saying Yeo worked as an “independent consultant” after his stint at the bank. Either way, the court heard that Yeo amassed S$24 million in the 15 months following his departure from BSI.
Prosecutors argued that Yeo earned the money through criminal means, pointing to multiple shell companies linked to Yeo and fingering well-known businessmen Eric Tan Kim Loong, Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al Husseiny and Mr Low who were allegedly involved in the money laundering operation.
Mr Tan is closely linked to Mr Low, often acting as his proxy, and Mr Husseiny is the former CEO of UAE’s sovereign wealth fund Aabar Investment PJS. He also controlled the bank accounts of four fake companies in the Aabar name.
Prosecutors said Yeo introduced the trio – Mr Tan, Mr Low and Mr Husseiny – to private bank Amicorp, where bank accounts for multiple shell companies were set up and through which millions in criminal proceeds flowed.
It was Yeo’s contact at Amicorp, Mr Jose Renato Carvalho Pinto, who testified that Yeo had asked him to dispose of his laptop and stay out of the country so Singapore authorities would not get hold of potentially incriminating evidence.
Mr Pinto said Yeo had also told him to instruct another Amicorp employee, Mr Aloysius Mun, to feign ignorance about Yeo’s dealings with Amicorp if he was questioned by authorities.
Yeo was found guilty of telling Mr Pinto to destroy evidence and for asking a colleague to keep mum about Yeo’s dealings with the bank.
In handing down the verdict, District Judge Ng Peng Hong said Yeo was “unreliable” as a witness and “not credible” on the stand.
For attempting to pervert the course of justice by witness tampering, Yeo faces up to three and a half years’ jail per charge and a fine. He will be sentenced on Thursday afternoon.
For each of the four charges for tampering with witnesses, Yeo faces up to seven years’ jail and a fine.
He faces another seven counts, including for money laundering, cheating and forgery, for which he will go on trial again next year.–Channel News Asia
