Singapore media has named Yak Yew Chee, a bank relationship manager for billionaire Jho Low, as among the individuals being probed by the city state in the growing controversy involving Malaysian state-owned fund 1MDB.
He was named by Singapore Straits Times and Singapore Business Times , citing unnamed sources.
The reports said that Yak also served as relationship manager for 1MDB Global Investment Ltd, Aabar Investment PJS Limited and SRC International Sdn Bhd, all entities that are or have been linked to 1MDB.
This is the first name to have emerged publicly in Singapore’s probe into allegations of money laundering by entities related to 1MDB where investigators have been tight-lipped.
According to Singapore Straits Times , Some S$10 million in Yak’s bank accounts were frozen in September last year.
The report said Yak, who is a senior private banker with Swiss bank BSI Singapore, is applying for the release of his bank accounts for the “payment of taxes, legal fees and basic expenses”.
It added the criminal motion will be heard at the Singapore High Court on Friday.
Yesterday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Commercial Affairs Department said that they had frozen a “large number of bank accounts” over possible money-laundering activities linked to 1MDB.
The public announcement came after Malaysian attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali on Jan 25 cleared Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of wrongdoing over investigations into the RM2.6 billion which appeared in his personal bank accounts and also another RM42 million from SRC International.
Najib had consistently claimed that the massive deposits was a donation from the Middle East.
In clearing the prime minister, Apandi claimed the remainder of the ‘donation’ was returned by Najib to the unnamed Arab donor and the premier had no knowledge of the RM42 million deposit form the state-owned fund.
On Jan 30, Switzerland’s attorney-general Michael Lauber expressed concern about Malaysia’s move to close its investigations and said its own probe revealed that some US$4 billion from Malaysian state-owned companies were misappropriated.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, which led the Malaysian investigation, is appealing the attorney-general’s instruction for them to drop the case.
