Former BSI Bank private banker Yak Yew Chee

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): Former BSI Bank private banker Yak Yew Chee has refused to come to Malaysia to testify in Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB-Tanore) trial despite being linked to fugitive Low Taek Jho (Jho Low), the High Court was told on Monday.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) senior superintendent Nur Aida Arifin said Singapore authorities had informed her that Yak did not want to come and testify in the trial.

Yak, who is from Singapore, was one of the first people to be arrested and sentenced over his involvement in 1MDB.

In 2016, he was sentenced to 18 weeks' jail in Singapore and fined S$24,000 after being found guilty on two counts of failing to disclose information to the authorities on suspicious banking activities involving Jho Low.

Questioned by Najib’s lawyer Tan Sri Shafee Abdullah, Nur Aida said Yak refused to come to Malaysia to testify in the trial, although she had already recorded his statement.

However Yak's counterpart at BSI Singapore, former head of wealth management services Kevin Swampillai, had testified last year in the trial.

Shafee: Kevin gave his statement (in this trial). What about Yak?

Nur Aida: From the Singaporean authorities, I was informed Yak did not want to testify in Malaysia.

Shafee then asked her of his whereabouts to which she responded: “Singaporean authorities said he was not in the country.”

She also said that he had already served his sentence and is free.

Asked about the cooperation she received from other countries during her investigations into the case, she said she dealt with countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Barbados and Hong Kong, and that the authorities from those countries were not very cooperative.

She said she had applied, through the mutual legal assistance (MLA) system, to interview bank staff from the four countries which had dealt with 1MDB transactions but was met with silence.

Shafee: They all did not now allow Puan Nur Aida to take or record statements from the witnesses?

Nur Aida: I was not allowed and I did not get any statements from the banks. There was no response from all countries.

Shafee: Even Singapore? Near to us?

Nur Aida: Except for Kevin Swampillai and Yak who gave their statements. Our AGC (Attorney General's Chambers) did make applications but there was no response from the other countries.

Kevin admitted in the trial, when he was on the stand last year, to pocketing nearly US$6 million in commissions from BSI for his role in carrying out 1MDB-linked transactions.

But the money had been “disgorged” when Singaporean authorities began investigations into 1MDB and Kevin's role in the transactions.

In October 2020, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued lifetime prohibition orders against Kevin for his role in the 1MDB scandal that they said resulted in him receiving US$5 million in “secret profits”.

Yak was employed at BSI between 2010 and 2016, while Jho Low became a client of BSI between late 2010 and early 2011.

Jho Low maintained a number of accounts with BSI, opened in his personal name as well as under entities owned by him.

BSI was also found to have earned “substantial amounts of fees” from transactions between various entities owned by Jho Low between 2011 and 2014, during which Yak was paid hefty bonuses. Jho Low “exerted great influence” over the transactions, investigations revealed.