ZURICH: Swiss financial watchdog FINMA said on Thursday the Swiss subsidiary of U.S. bank JPMorgan had committed serious anti-money laundering breaches in relation to Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.The case adds to the political storm that has raged for more than two years over the scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the focus of money-laundering investigations in at least six countries including Singapore, Switzerland and the United States.The case has already swept up Swiss private banks Edmond de Rotschild, BSI and Falcon; the international arm of the British queen's bank Coutts, and big banks UBS and Credit Suisse. "The bank failed in particular to identify the money-laundering risks relating to cash flows between business accounts and personal accounts," the supervisor said. "In one case, it credited hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, allegedly earmarked for the purchase of a company, to the personal account of an individual with close ties to a 1MDB business partner. "Part of that money was then transferred to a business account associated with the person, FINMA said, without the bank having questioned the purpose or procedure behind the transactions or the substantial sum that stayed in the private account.JPMorgan said the findings arose from activities which had since been tightened. It did not name the final bank involved.

Source: The Star December 21, 2017 11:26 UTC