Singapore’s High Court ruled against a bid by Standard Chartered and BSI Bank to be heard in applications seeking to wind up some foreign entities as part of efforts to recover assets linked to Malaysia’s scandal-hit sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, according to a judgment issued on Thursday.
Judge Aidan Xu held that Standard Chartered Bank(Singapore), BSI Bank and former BSI banker Hans Peter Brunner did not have standing to take part in four applications brought by British Virgin Islands companies in liquidation, including Brazen Sky and Blackstone Asia Real Estate Partners.
The companies are seeking winding-up orders in Singapore so their liquidators can pursue claims to unwind transactions that took place before Singapore adopted its current cross-border insolvency rules.
Xu said the banks were not contingent creditors merely because they might later obtain costs orders, and a narrow exception for non-creditor participation did not apply.
Last October, Xu dismissed a bid by foreign liquidators to sue Standard Chartered Bank and BSI Bank in Singapore over transactions allegedly linked to 1MDB.
US and Malaysian investigators say about $4.5 billion was stolen from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd state fund between 2009 and 2014 in a complex, globe-spanning scheme that resulted in the jailing of former prime minister Najib Razak.
Standard Chartered, the liquidators and BSI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Reuters
