Daily Briefing: Singapore jails Swiss bank's ex-manager in 1MDB saga; Singapore's Garena Said to Pick Goldman for $1 Billion IPO

And is buying a property in China really worth it for Singapore investors?

A Singapore court found a former manager at a Swiss private bank guilty of failing to report more than $1.26 billion in suspicious transactions in a case linked to the indebted Malaysian state fund 1 MDB. The court on Wednesday sentenced Jens Sturzenegger, a Swiss national and former manager at Falcon Private Bank, to 28 weeks in jail and fined him 128,000 Singapore dollars ($89,143). He pleaded guilty to six charges including not disclosing information and lying to investigators. Read the full story here.

Garena, Southeast Asia’s most valuable startup, picked Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to lead a planned initial public offering that could fetch about $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Singapore-based online gaming portal and e-commerce provider plans to select additional banks as soon as this month, the people said. Garena is considering listing in the U.S., the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Get to know the rest of the story here.

There are severe restrictions on foreigners investing in Chinese real estate. If an investor from Singapore wants to buy real estate in China, it is necessary to actually move there. Till recently, Chinese government rules required that a foreigner who wished to acquire real estate should have worked or studied in the country for at least a year. Additionally, it was permissible to buy only one property in China. Click here to see if it is really worth it to buy a property in China.