Singapore, 28 January 2022: Between October 2021 and December 2021, the Police administered stern warnings against (i) Kevin Michael Swampillai (“Mr Swampillai”) in lieu of prosecution for four counts of cheating BSI Bank Limited (“BSI Singapore”) under Section 420 of the Penal Code (“Penal Code”), and (ii) Samuel Wu[1](“Mr Wu”) in lieu of prosecution for four counts of abetment of the aforesaid offences under the same act.
Officers from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigated Mr Swampillai in relation to his role as Head of Wealth Management Services at BSI Singapore where he oversaw the bank’s advisory and wealth management businesses with the subsidiaries of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (“1MDB”). Between 2012 and 2013, Mr Swampillai and his then-colleague, Yeo Jiawei (“Mr Yeo”), assisted the 1MDB subsidiaries to invest assets through subscriptions into three funds (“the Funds”). The 1MDB subsidiaries would pay annual management fees to the respective investment managers of the Funds.
Mr Swampillai and Mr Yeo subsequently devised a plan to obtain a cut of the management fees paid by the 1MDB subsidiaries for themselves and without the knowledge of their then-employer, BSI Singapore. They enlisted Mr Wu in their endeavour. Mr Wu incorporated an intermediary company, Bridge Global Managers Inc, that entered into secret agreements with the Funds’ investment managers and was to be paid a share of the management fees as referral fees. Mr Wu then distributed the resulting payments received by Bridge Global Managers Inc among the three of them.
In 2016, Mr Yeo was prosecuted for, amongst others, offences of cheating and of attempting to pervert course of justice by asking Mr Swampillai and Mr Wu to lie that the distributions made by Bridge Global Managers Inc were Mr Wu’s investments[2].
[1]Formerly known as Goh Sze-Wei Samuel.
[2]Yeo Jiawei was convicted after trial in December 2016 on the offences relating to attempts to pervert course of justice. In July 2017, he pleaded guilty to cheating and money laundering charges, for which he was sentenced to 54 months’ imprisonment.
After careful consideration of the circumstances of the case and in consultation with the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Police have issued stern warnings in lieu of prosecution to Mr Swampillai and Mr Wu. This decision was taken after considering all relevant factors, including their full cooperation with authorities throughout the course of investigations by disclosing their secret profits arrangement, and disgorging the illicit profits they received, including voluntarily repatriating overseas-held assets to Singapore.
Mr Swampillai and Mr Yeo had been earlier issued lifetime Prohibition Orders by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) on 22 October 2020 and 18 December 2017 respectively.
Mr Wu was not a representative at the time of participation in the secret profits arrangements. MAS will take Mr Wu’s conduct into account in assessing any future applications by Mr Wu to be a representative.
Update on Repatriation of Seized 1MDB-Related Assets
In December 2021, Singapore authorities filed further court applications to return approximately S$10.3 million of seized 1MDB-related monies to the Malaysian government. These applications have been granted by the Court, and the monies have been transferred to the Malaysian government. To-date, a total of about S$88 million of seized 1MDB-related monies have been repatriated to the Malaysian government.
All requests for repatriation of assets and monies seized pursuant to investigations into 1MDB related fund flows, including those disgorged by Mr Swampillai and Mr Wu, have been and will continue to be dealt with in accordance with Singapore’s legal framework.
Source: Singapore Police Force