Geneva-based private bank Lombard Odier has reportedly turned in to the authorities about 900 pages of paperwork related to a client with alleged links to controversial entrepreneur Low Taek Jho and subsequently the 1MDB scandal.

According to financial daily Finews, United Arab Emirates ambassador to the US Yousef Al Otaiba supposedly had an account with Lombard Odier, reported Swiss newspaper Le Temps.

The newspaper said Yousef allegedly has a financial link with Low, who is widely known as Jho Low, whom the US Department of Justice (DOJ) believed masterminded the misappropriation of money from state fund 1MDB.

Hacked emails also purportedly showed that the Lombard Odier had a pattern of doubt and mistrust against Yousef and had shut his account in 2016.

The emails also showed that Yousef himself was just as wary of Jho Low, according to Le Temps.

Jho Low had supposedly asked Yousef to write him a recommendation for Goldman Sachs’ wealth operation in Switzerland, which is also based in Geneva, but Yousef had reportedly said to an associate, “(Invent an excuse) not to do it.”

These recommendation letters are a formalised version of word-of-mouth references and Jho Low had in fact asked and received a similar recommendation letter from former Goldman Sachs’ Southeast Asia chairperson Tim Leissner, who has since been banned for 10 years from trading in Singapore.

Yousef had also apparently written in another email that Jho Low “needs to calm down and quit partying”. Jho Low had at one point gained notoriety for being a “party boy” in New York.

Malaysiakini cannot independently verify these sources of information.

It was reported by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) earlier this month that the leaked emails allegedly showed that Yousef had used his diplomatic influence to persuade banks in the UAE to provide a loan to 1MDB.

The report said Yousef had in September 2014 encouraged Abu Dhabi banks to participate in a short-term financing loan being arranged by Deutsche Bank for 1MDB, stating that it was important for UAE-Malaysia relations.

The DOJ in its third civil forfeiture filing on the 1MDB scandal found US$700 million out of a US$975 million Deutsche Bank loan from 1MDB was diverted.

Meanwhile, in July this year, WSJ had also reported that companies linked to Yousef had allegedly received US$66 million in funds diverted from 1MDB.

The two companies that allegedly received part of the money totalling US$50 million were British Virgin Islands-based Densmore Investment Ltd and UAE-based Silver Coast Construction & Boring LLC.

Both these transactions originated from a Falcon Private Bank account held under Granton Property Holding Ltd, controlled by Eric Tan Kim Loong.

The DOJ had described Tan as an associate of Jho Low, and Singapore court proceedings had revealed that Jho Low had used the name “Eric Tan” as an alias for banking and communication purposes.