Did the Director-General of Department of Special Affairs (Jasa), Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi tell a lie to Malay students in Canberra during his “ Veracity Tour” in Australia about the RM2.6 billion “donation” in Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal banking account?

This question immediately comes to mind after the Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz made a revealing admission today that the UMNO Supreme Council was never informed about the RM2.6 billion “donation” deposited into Najib’s personal banking accounts, which tallied with what the UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had been saying since his removal as Deputy Prime Minister in July last year.

This is what Nazri said today:

“He (Najib) never told us (UMNO supreme council). He didn’t have to tell us. He just have to get approval from Bank Negara, that’s all.” (Malaysiakini)

What Puad said in Canberra clearly contradicted what Nazri said today. Read the rest of this entry »

The Nation
Thailand
May 25, 2016

SINGAPORE – Singapore’s central bank on Tuesday said it was kicking out Switzerland’s BSI Bank, which has been linked to a global money-laundering scandal that has embroiled neighbouring Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak.

In the toughest legal action so far in the crisis rocking Malaysian state fund 1MDB, Switzerland also disclosed it had launched criminal proceedings against the parent firm BSI SA for “deficiencies” in its internal organisation.

“BSI Bank is the worst case of control lapses and gross misconduct that we have seen in the Singapore financial sector,” Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said in a statement.

MAS said it had asked state prosecutors to investigate six senior executives of BSI Bank for possible criminal offences and fined it Sg$ 13.3 million ($9.6 million) for 41 breaches of Singapore’s laws against money laundering. Read the rest of this entry »

Shamim Adam and Andrea Tan
Bloomberg
May 24, 2016

Global probes related to a troubled Malaysian state fund have enmeshed the biggest casualty to date: a 143-year-old Swiss bank.

Singapore ordered BSI SA’s unit in the city state to shut down as Swiss authorities began criminal proceedings against the bank. Here’s the state of play.

How are 1MDB and BSI connected?
Read the rest of this entry »

By Rachel Middleton
International Business Times
May 25, 2016

Private Swiss bank BSI, which has been ordered to close its operations in Singapore, has been slammed by its own regulator for failing to adequately monitor its relationship with Malaysian sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, FINMA, accused the bank of committing “serious breaches of money laundering regulations” and “fit and proper” requirements.

In a statement dated 24 May, FINMA said the bank “executed numerous large transactions with unclear purpose over a period of several years and, despite clearly suspicious indications, did not clarify the background to these transactions.”

Following its investigations, FINMA has now approved the takeover of BSI by EFG International with the condition that BSI will be “integrated and thereafter dissolved with 12 months”. As part of its conditions, none of the BSI top management “responsible for the misconduct” will be allowed to take up leadership positions at EFG, the statement said. Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Peel, Bangkok regional correspondent
Financial Times
May 24, 2016

Regulators in Europe and Asia have cracked down on BSI, the Swiss private bank, over alleged money-laundering failings related to the scandal over Malaysia’s 1MDB state investment fund. Claims that billions of dollars have been misappropriated from Malaysian state companies have spawned probes on several continents. BSI is now under criminal investigation in its home country and has been ordered to shut down in Singapore. It has been fined S$13.3m in Singapore and forced to disgorge profits of SFr95m in Switzerland. Here are a few questions raised by Tuesday’s events.

1. What was BSI’s relationship with 1MDB? Read the rest of this entry »

Geir Moulson and Jamey Keaten
Associated Press
USA Today
May 24, 2016

GENEVA – A Swiss private bank will face criminal proceedings and be liquidated after allegedly committing serious breaches of anti-money laundering regulations in connection with the suspected embezzlement of a Malaysian state investment fund.

Switzerland’s market supervisor indicated Tuesday that BSI SA helped transfer money to the Alpine country connected to the Malaysian fund called 1MDB. Investigations so far into 1MDB have indicated that $4 billion earmarked for development projects in Malaysia may have been misappropriated from state-owned companies.

The Swiss market supervisor, FINMA, said that in the 1MDB case, BSI “executed numerous large transactions with unclear purpose over a period of several years and, despite clearly suspicious indications, did not clarify the background to these transactions.” Read the rest of this entry »

By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE
New York Times
MAY 24, 2016

GENEVA — The authorities in Switzerland said on Tuesday that they had begun criminal proceedings against one of the country’s oldest banks, BSI, after allegations that it had laundered huge sums for “politically exposed” individuals linked to a scandal-plagued Malaysian state investment fund.

The Swiss attorney general’s office said in a statement that it suspected “deficiencies in the internal organization of the BSI S.A. bank” and believed “that due to these deficiencies, the bank was unable to prevent the commission of offenses currently under investigation in the criminal proceedings relating to” the investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

The prosecution arose from an investigation that Switzerland started last year into suspected misappropriation of billions of dollars from the Malaysian fund, also known as 1MDB, and that it has pursued in cooperation with the authorities in Luxembourg, Singapore and the United States. Read the rest of this entry »