Second ex-BSI banker jailed, fined in 1MDB-related probe
Yvonne Seah Yew Foong leaving the State Courts with her legal representative on Oct 10, 2016. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — Former BSI director and senior private banker Yvonne Seah became the second person to be convicted and sentenced on Friday (Dec 16), in Singapore’s probe into alleged money laundering linked to Malaysia’s troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Seah, 45, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail and fined S$10,000 on two counts of abetting forgery and another one of not reporting suspicious transactions that she knew could constitute criminal conduct.
Another four charges were taken into consideration during sentencing. While the prosecution has asked for two weeks’ jail and a fine of S$12,000, the defence pleaded for a fine, saying Seah was a helpless subordinate who was merely doing what her boss Yak Yew Chee told her.
Yak, 57, was sentenced last month to 18 weeks’ jail and fined S$24,000 for a similar set of offences.
While District Judge Salina Ishak accepted that Seah was less culpable than Yak, she still ruled that Seah’s offences — committed between Nov 20, 2012, and May 19, 2014 — warranted a deterrent custodial sentence.
“The court must take an uncompromising stand in meting out sentences to offenders in this category,” the judge said, adding that Seah had abused the position of trust she held as a senior officer of a financial institution.
In a press statement issued through her lawyer after the sentencing, Seah reiterated that Yak had directed her to sign the contentious letters, and that her predicament is the “result of error in judgment and mistake while doing her job”.
On two occasions, Seah had “intentionally aided” Yak in forging reference letters demanded by Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, who is one of the leading figures in the alleged global money laundering operation, and to whom Yak is a relationship manager.
Her defence lawyer Peter Low said that since Yak and the top management of BSI were “eager to please and pander” to Low’s requests, it was “practically impossible” for Seah to probe into the veracity of the documents she was asked to co-sign.
However, the prosecution charged that she knew what she was doing and had no excuse to “breach the trust reposed in her for personal gain”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Nathaniel Khng said: “This is not a case where the accused was a mindless instrument or lowly minion merely executing instructions. She was a highly paid senior private banker who knew what she was signing and yet chose to (do so).”
DPP Khng also disputed the defence that Seah was suffering ill mental health, stressing that there was no evidence of her seeking help in the years she was working with Yak at the Swiss bank.
The court heard that there was a transaction of US$153 million (S$220 million) flowing through BSI’s accounts in Singapore, of which a significant US$110 million later flowed out of Singapore to Selune Ltd.
Seah, despite having “reasonable grounds” to suspect that these transactions directly represented proceeds from an act that may “constitute criminal conduct”, failed to disclose the information to the authorities.
While the defence argued that Seah was “compelled” to take directions from a “dominating superior”, the prosecution charged that she had a close working relationship with Yak that benefitted her financially.
Seah worked with Yak in at least three banks for 17 years out of her 22-year banking career. She had “moved voluntarily with (Yak) from bank to bank”, DPP Khng said.
He pointed to how Seah earned a total of S$4.1 million between 2010 and 2015, a bulk of which were due to “significant bonuses” in transactions related to Low.
He added that imposing fines for the well-heeled often “fail to amount to sufficient or meaningful deterrence”. “(This applies to) highly paid private bankers of seniority like the accused. With the amount of money that they earn, a fine would have no deterrent effect,” he said.
Seah could have been jailed four years and/or fined for abetting forgery. For each charge of not disclosing her suspicion of an act which may constitute criminal conduct, she could have been fined S$20,000.
