FORMER BSI Singapore wealth planner Yeo Jiawei was sentenced to four and a half years in prison by a Singapore court today for money laundering and cheating in relation to a massive global probe involving billions of dollars allegedly misappropriated from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state fund.

Yeo, 34, pleaded guilty to two charges, one each of money laundering and cheating, with eight other charges taken into account, The Straits Times reported.

The sentence is the longest yet handed down by a Singapore court for convictions relating to 1MDB.

Yeo will serve his 54-month term concurrent to a separate 30-month sentence he received in December 2016 for witness tampering.

According to reports, Yeo accrued a S$26 million (RM81 million) fortune while he was at BSI from 2009 to 2014, including alleged money laundering schemes.

While there are numerous investigations underway around the world, including three civil suits filed by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Singapore is the only country to have successfully prosecuted people involved in the beleaguered fund, chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Multiple sources have confirmed that Najib is at the centre of the US inquiry, named on court documents as ‘Malaysian Official 1’.

However, Najib has consistently denied any wrongdoing and Malaysian investigators have also decided that for him there is no case to answer.

In Singapore, senior banker Yak Yew Chee was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison, in November 2016, and fined for forging documents and failing to disclose suspicious transactions allegedly related to Low Taek Jho, also known as “Jho Low”, a Malaysian financier at the heart of the scandal.

Another banker, Yvonne Seah Yew Foong, was jailed for two weeks and fined on December 16 last year for similar offences.

Swiss Jens Sturzenegger was sentenced to 28 weeks in jail and fined S$128,000.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has handed out punishments to other people linked to 1MDB, including lifetime bans.

Meanwhile, it has cancelled trading licences and fined a number of financial institutions. – July 12, 2017.