SINGAPORE (Oct 10): Kevin Scully, the founder and former CEO of NRA Capital which has been renamed Tayrona Financial, is allowed to remain a shareholder of the financial advisory firm, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced on Wednesday.
The variation to the original prohibition order (PO) follows an appeal by Scully to the minister in charge of the regulator, deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
Under the original three-year-long PO which took effect from Dec 18 2017, Scully cannot provide professional financial advice. He is also prohibited from being the substantial shareholder of a financial advisory services firm and cannot manage or act as a director for any such firm.
See: MAS issues prohibition orders against Yeo Jiawei, Kevin Scully on 1MDB-related breaches
Following the successful appeal, Scully is now allowed to hold NRA shares on condition he gives an undertaking to MAS not to exercise any rights over the shares he owns that would enable him to directly or indirectly influence the management and operations of NRA in any manner. Apart from this variation, the other parts of the PO remain in effect.
In 2013, Jacky Lee, a former analyst with NRA, was given $3,000 by former Maybank Kim Eng remisier Kelvin Ang to hasten the production of a valuation report, which was commissioned by Bridge Partners Investment Management (Cayman) and Affinity Equity International Partners.
Ang was reportedly acting on behalf of former BSI wealth planner Yeo Jiawei, who is now serving time in jail for illegally transferring money stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad. Yeo has claimed he was working for Low Taek Jho or Jho Low who is now wanted by the Malaysian authorities for misappropriating money from the sovereign wealth fund.
The report by Lee had valued two ageing drillships in Venezuela, which were to be acquired by the two entities linked to 1MDB at US$2.4 billion.
Scully, who was CEO of NRA at that time, was deemed by MAS to have failed to “ensure that NRA’s valuation service was performed with sufficient care, judgment and objectivity.”
With the latest variation to the PO, Scully can receive dividends that may be approved solely by the other shareholders of NRA. He is to also inform the directors and management of NRA of the undertaking he has provided to MAS and furnish proof of having done so to MAS.
In the same MAS announcement, Lim Fang Wee, a former Credit Suisse banker, will now serve a three-year PO instead of four years, following an appeal.
Lim was penalised for deliberately concealing the identity of the true beneficial owner of three accounts with the bank, making it more difficult for the bank to detect suspicious transactions.
MAS had charged that Lim did not “honestly carried on business in the type of regulated activity for which he had been appointed” and was thus not a fit and proper person to be appointed to carry such business.
