Former BSI banker Yeo Jiawei was paid S$500,000 a year by 1MDB-linked tycoon Low Taek Jho, a Singapore court was told yesterday.

Yeo's former boss Kevin Swampillai reportedly testified that he had asked Yeo how much he would be paid, as the latter was leaving BSI’s Singapore unit in June 2014 to work for Low, who is widely known as Jho Low.

The reply came that he would be paid S$500,000 a year, which Swampillai was quoted as saying “would be more than what he would have earned at BSI Bank", according to a report by The Edge.

The report said Yeo is currently being tried for four charges of tampering with witnesses, including Swampillai who used to work for BSI Bank Singapore until he became unemployed when the bank was suspended.

Yeo faces 11 charges in total, including money laundering, forgery and cheating. However, the other charges are slated for a separate trial in April next year.

Yeo is a Singapore national, while Swampillai is Malaysian.

Yeo’s lawyer Philip Fong reportedly tried to portray the 52-year-old Swampillai as a more experienced banker, but Swampillai countered that it was Yeo who instantly recognised the potential of their "venture".

Among these include accounts belonging to Brazen Sky with US$2.3 billion of 1MDB-linked funds under management.

Swampillai reportedly disagreed with Fong’s contention that Yeo sat passive to lap up what Swampillai told him, and instead said that “Mr Yeo was an active participant in that discussion. He leapt at it”, and described Yeo as being skilled in setting up trusts.

“We had already agreed much earlier what the structure of the whole exercise would be, the companies involved, the intermediary companies, you know, the flow of funds, and Mr Yeo went ahead and implemented that.

“I disagree with the whole notion that Mr Yeo is a robot standing by taking my instructions at every step of the way,” he added.

Swampillai also reportedly testified on how he and Yeo met and communicated after they came under scrutiny by Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), which was investigating the 1MDB scandal.

Among others, Swampillai testified that Yeo had offered him the use of a "secondary phone" as he became more concerned about the use of telephones.

“And what I'm alluding to is not the SIM card but Mr Yeo used a term ‘Bangla phone’ meaning these are SIM cards and phones that belong to construction workers that have since left Singapore and are therefore untraceable,” he was quoted as saying.

The trial will resume today, with its sixth witness Samuel Goh to take the stand.