Swiss Fine Coutts Unit Over 1MDB Money-Laundering Breaches
- Bank ordered to pay back 6.5 million francs in unlawful profit
- Swiss prosecutors reviewing whether criminal probe is merited
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Switzerland’s financial regulator fined Coutts & Co. Ltd. for violating money-laundering rules and illegally profiting from transactions associated with 1Malaysia Development Bhd, prompting Swiss prosecutors to review the decision to see if the bank should face a criminal investigation.
Coutts, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, allowed a total of $2.4 billion worth of assets related to the Malaysian development fund to flow through accounts in Switzerland even though it had good reason to be suspicious of the transactions, Finma said.