World's top private bank dragged into 1MDB probe

Singapore

UBS Group, the world's largest private bank, has been drawn into Malaysia's 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal and Singapore's ongoing money-laundering probe into the case.

According to sources, UBS Singapore (the first Swiss bank to set up shop here) is one of several financial institutions whose client bank accounts have been scrutinised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for suspicious transactions in an ongoing probe by the authorities into troubled 1MDB.

"UBS has been assisting in MAS's investigations as have several other banks. It's a pretty complicated case," said a source, adding however that "this is not another BSI situation; it's nowhere close".

According to a UK-based whistleblower site Sarawak Report, at least US$1.24 billion of monies raised by 1MDB Global, a subsidiary of the state-controlled firm, through a bond issue was transferred through BSI Bank in Lugano to a UBS bank account in Singapore held by Aabar Investments PJS Ltd …