The Singapore Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) said Penang-born billionaire Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, was amongst the persons of interest in its investigation into money-laundering linked to 1MDB, according to Singapore's Straits Times.

CAD investigation officer Oh Yong Yang said this during the trial of former BSI banker Yeo Jiawei who is facing charges for facilitating money-laundering linked to 1MDB and attempting to cover up.

Oh was quoted as saying during the trial in Singapore  that the other "persons of interest" included Jho Low's associates Eric Tan Kim Loong and Mohamed Badawy Al Husseiny.

He added that the three men were also being investigated in other jurisdictions.

All three were also named in the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) 136-page filing in its investigation into the 1MDB saga.

The DOJ believed more than US$3.5 billion was misappropriated from the Malaysian fund and laundered through the US financial system.

Oh said Singapore's CAD was interested in the three men as part of its probe into the "complex, sophisticated and largest money-laundering case involving billions of dollars in transactions".

He said the interest in the men were related, in particular, to funds linked to Aabar Investments PJS, a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

The DOJ in its filing said 1MDB funds intended for Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments PJS was diverted to a company bearing a similar name, British Virgin Islands-based Aabar Investments PJS Limited, which is unrelated to IPIC.

It described this as the "Aabar BVI phase", one of three phases in which around US$3.5 billion was allegedly siphoned from 1MDB.