Najib knew of 1MDB transactions via BSI accounts: ex-banker

KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak knew of the transactions related to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) happening through BSI Bank Ltd’s Singapore branch, according to its former employee Kevin Michael Swampillai.

Testitfying during Najib’s main 1MDB trial today, Swampillai, the former head of BSI’s Wealth Management Services Department, explained that 1MDB and several of its subsidiaries had engaged with the bank for its fiduciary account services.

Swampillai also said that BSI services with 1MDB had begun as early as 2011, starting with SRC International Sdn Bhd after he was introduced to fugitive businessmen Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, by former BSI relationship manager Yak Yew Chee.

The former banker said there were numerous reasons that he assumed the transactions were known to Najib as the amounts channelled in and out of the funds were of high magnitude.

“Though instructions to implement these transactions were communicated by various employees of the client companies to their BSI relationship manager Yak, I was always under the impression that these transactions were undertaken with the knowledge of the then prime minister Najib.

“I formed this impression based on the following facts:

“1. SRC was a company owned by the Finance Ministry at the time when Najib was the finance minister.
“2. Najib was chairman of the board of advisers of 1MDB, and furthermore 1MDB was wholly owned by the Finance Ministry.
“3. Low had made various intimations to BSI Bank that he was an adviser to Najib, which was communicated to me by my superiors and relationship manager Yak.
“4. That in the face of persistent questions by BSI Bank on the final destination and use of funds channelled through the fiduciary funds, Low’s consistent response had been that these transactions were highly confidential government-to-government investments and therefore no further information could be made available.
“5. Finally, the size of these transactions were of such a high magnitude and frequency that they had to have some kind of apex approval such as that issued by a highly placed government official such as a prime minister,” said Swampillai.

He also said that he was initially perplexed as to why Low had opted to use fiduciary fund solutions instead of other solutions like insurance structures and trusts.

“However, with the benefit of hindsight based on the information that has come out in the public domain since 2015, it is evident to me that Low intended that the fiduciary funds would be better at giving the optical illusion to various stakeholders in Malaysia and elsewhere that the funds belonging to SRC, 1MDB, and Aabar were invested in bona fide investment instruments such as investment funds.

“There are other fiduciary solutions other than fund structures such as insurance structures and trust structures that can also be used to layer money flows and obscure client identities,’’ he said.

Swampillai explained that BSI’s fiduciary funds included Cistenique Investment Fund, Enterprise Emerging Market Fund, Devonshire Capital Growth Fund (Devonshire) and Bridge Absolute Return Fund, among others.

These were all fiduciary funds on the BSI Bank panel of fiduciary fund solutions which were made available to all clients of the bank seeking such solutions, which included 1MDB, 1MDB Global Investment Limited (1MDB GIL), SRC and Aabar BVI Ltd (a fake entity known to be linked to Low).

In the ongoing trial, Najib faces four charges of using his position to obtain bribes totaling RM2.3 billion from 1MDB funds and 21 charges of money laundering involving the same amount. – The Vibes, March 1, 2023