ZURICH, May 26 (Reuters) - A banker went on trial in
Switzerland on Tuesday charged with failing to sound the alarm
over millions of dollars linked to scandal-tainted Malaysian
sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
The former anti-money-laundering executive at private bank
Coutts & Co Ltd denies any wrongdoing. Reuters is not naming the
defendant due to Swiss laws on privacy in court proceedings.
Swiss markets watchdog FINMA in 2017 ordered Coutts to pay
6.5 million Swiss francs ($6.7 million) for breaching
money-laundering regulations in its business linked to 1MDB, but
dropped its own proceedings against the executive.
FINMA's investigation found that between 2009 and 2015
assets worth $2.4 billion moved through accounts at Coutts,
which was founded in the 18th century and is best known as
banker to Britain's Queen Elizabeth.
The Swiss prosecutors' indictment details warnings from
Coutts colleagues about transactions by Low Taek Jho, or Jho
Low, the Malaysian businessman tied to the 1Malaysia Development
Berhad (1MDB) fund, which was set up in 2009 by the government
of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Najib is on trial in Malaysia on corruption charges, which
he denied in March and said were politically motivated. Low has
also denied any wrongdoing, saying in January that he acted only
as an intermediary for deals involving 1MDB.
U.S. justice officials estimate $4.5 billion was siphoned
out of Malaysia by high-level fund officials and associates
between 2009 and 2014, and laundered through countries including
the United States, Switzerland, Singapore and Luxembourg.
Prosecutors say Low had three accounts at Coutts, including
one for a Seychelles-based company called Good Star that
deposited an initial $700 million payment in September 2009,
ostensibly for managing investments for 1MDB.
A lawyer from the bank's legal department warned in October
2009 the explanation of the source of money was "anything other
than plausible", the indictment seen by Reuters says.
Royal Bank of Scotland sold most of Coutts'
international assets to Union Bancaire Privee in March 2015
after splitting up the bank.
($1 = 0.9654 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Michael Shields;
Editing by Alexander Smith)
