Bank in Court bid to halt Sabah graft probe

Swiss bank challenges federal prosecutors on money-laundering case.

KUALA LUMPUR: Swiss bank UBS has filed a case in Switzerland’s Federal Court in Lausanne against the Office of the Attorney-General of Switzerland over the use of evidence obtained from an ongoing investigation on the laundering of Malaysian corruption proceeds, according to the Swiss weekly, Schweiz am Sonntag.

“The Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) called on UBS to stop obstructing this important case and to fully co-operate with prosecutors.”

UBS court action, said BMF, contravenes the bank’s repeated assurances that it was cooperating with the investigation.

UBS was apparently trying to impede the prosecutors from using evidence they had obtained in an investigation against the bank over its business relationship with Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman and his nominees. UBS has requested that key evidence on the case be sealed and that federal prosecutors be barred from using the evidence in a criminal case against the bank.

The case was opened in August 2012, following a complaint under Swiss criminal law by the Bruno Manser Fund.

UBS has been accused of laundering over USD90 million of illicit funds paid by timber tycoons to Musa. The story was first broken by a UK-based whistleblower website which disclosed that the bribes were paid into bank accounts with UBS subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The Office of the Attorney- General of Switzerland has confirmed legal disputes on the sealing and unsealing of evidence in the ongoing investigation.

Last year, Swiss authorities requested legal assistance from Malaysia and third countries over the matter.