A witness testified in a Singapore court that ex-BSI wealth planner Yeo Jiawei had urged him to lie to the police about certain fund flows that linked Yeo to Malaysia's troubled 1MDB.

Samuel Goh, 41, formerly NTUC Income's head of distribution, told the court yesterday that he "reluctantly" met Yeo and BSI's Kevin Swampillai on March 27 this year.

There, Yeo planned and described an “investment story” that the three of them should tell the police to explain the suspicious fund flows.

“Yeo said that it was time that we meet to hold hands and come up with a story explaining… the whole schematics of how the monies received by Bridge Global Managers (a shell company controlled by Yeo and Swampillai) were actually my monies," said Goh, adding that the meeting held that night was at the Swiss Club where Swampillai was a member.

"Yeo remarked that we should hold hands, this is the story that we need to - if we go through this, we'll live together. If we die, we die together,” the witness told the court, as reported in the Singapore Straits Times.

Yeo is facing four counts of perverting the course of justice by allegedly urging witnesses to lie to the police while he was released on bail, after police arrested him on March 17.

This is in connection to Singapore's largest money-laundering probe related to 1MDB.

Yeo also faces cheating, forgery charges

He is also facing several counts of money-laundering, cheating and forgery in a separate trial scheduled next year.

Goh, who is the second prosecution witness, said Yeo had approached him in 2012 to act as an intermediary to facilitate payments from 1MDB-linked shell company Bridge Partners to Bridge Global Managers, which is controlled by Yeo and Swampillai.

The witness further described his relationship with Yeo as friends where the two would have meetings between 2012 and 2014, whenever the former BSI wealth planner called for it.

Replying to questions from Yeo's lawyer Philip Fong, Goh said Yeo sought his assistance to set up a fund for Aabar Investments PJS Ltd in 2014.

He testified that he knew the client as Aabar but did not know its full name, Aabar Investments PJS Ltd.

The name is shared by another entity that is named in the United States Department of Justice's kleptocracy action filed in July - to which 1MDB had allegedly sent US$3.5 billion.

Abu Dhabi's state fund had in April denied any connection with Aabar Investment PJS Ltd, which shares a near identical name to its own firm, Aabar Investments PJS.

Swampillai, who was the first witness, testified earlier that Penang-born tycoon, Jho Low, whose his full name is Low Taek Jho, had paid Yeo S$500,000 a month to work for him.

He had also testified that Yeo had made S$26 million (RM78 million) by the time he was 32.

Goh will take the stand again on Monday.