Switzerland shuts down money-laundering BSI Bank/Bank’s Panama subsidiary accepted Konrad Mizzi and Keith Schembri as customers
Swiss financial regulators have approved the dissolution of BSI Bank, the scandal-torn outfit which has been embroiled in the corruption scandal which has engulfed Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Switzerland’s Attorney-General opened criminal proceedings against the bank yesterday. The merchant bank has been accused of “serious breaches” of anti-money-laundering regulations in its dealings with Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, which is at the epicentre of the corruption scandal.
Switzerland’s financial authorities have now ordered that the bank be dissolved within 12 months, while its business is absorbed by the Zurich-based private banking group EFG International. They have also ordered the confiscation of $US96 million of BSI’s “illegally generated” profits.
Referring to the Malaysian corruption scandal in which BSI is mired, the Swiss regulator said: “The bank executed numerous large transactions with unclear purpose over a period of several years and, despite clearly suspicious indications, did not clarify the background to these transactions.”
Singapore’s central bank yesterday said it would kick out BSI from its jurisdiction, for “serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank’s operations, and gross misconduct by some of the bank’s staff”.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore said it had also asked state prosecutors to investigate six senior executives of BSI Bank Ltd, BSI’s Singapore subsidiary, including its former chief executive, for possible criminal offences.
BSI’s Panama subsidiary was the only bank, in a long hunt that took corrupt accountants Brian Tonna and Karl Cini from Dubai to Panama to the Caribbean across nine banks, to accept Malta’s energy minister and Prime Minister’s chief of staff as customers despite their high-level political exposure and inability to explain properly where the money would come from.
