Ex-Coutts banker found guilty in US$700 million transfer from 1MDB to Jho Low

Name: Malaysia’s former PM sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined US$49 million
Uploaded: 2020-07-31T14:19:09.000Z
Duration: 1 min 43 s
Description: Malaysia’s former PM sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined US$49 million

The man was fined US$55,000 for failing to flag money laundering concerns related to a transaction by the fugitive businessman

Malaysia is seeking Low’s arrest after issuing new charges against him in February

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Malaysian financier Jho Low. Photo: SCMP

Bloomberg

Published: 10:19pm, 31 Jul 2020Updated: 4:37am, 1 Aug 2020

A former Coutts & Co banker was found guilty of failing to flag money laundering concerns related to a US$700 million transfer into an account controlled by Jho Low, the alleged mastermind behind the 1MDB scandal.

The man, who was only identified as A., was fined 50,000 Swiss francs (US$55,000) by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court in a ruling on Friday.

“There were numerous signs that there were serious indications of money laundering, which grew over time,” the court said in a statement. “Despite being aware of these well-founded suspicions, A. left the communication” to regulatory officials “until the moment he left the bank”.

The decade-old 1MDB scandal, which led to the fall of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, returned to the headlines this past week.

Najib was found guilty of abuse of power and money laundering, while Goldman Sachs struck a US$3.9 billion deal with Malaysia to resolve investigations into the US bank’s role in a scheme to plunder the Southeast Asian nation’s 1MDB investment fund.

The scandal was breathtaking for the audacity with which little-known financier Low built a US$8 billion dollar fund intended to develop the Malaysian economy, and authorities allege that he then pilfered from the fund to fuel a spending spree on parties, sports cars, luxury properties and priceless art.

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Malaysia’s former PM sentenced to 12 years in jail and fined US$49 million