'Everybody' at Goldman Sachs knew of 1MDB deals, says report

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 3 Nov 2018 9:41AM · 4 Comments

GOLDMAN Sachs CEO David Solomon and more than 30 of the firm’s executives had reviewed 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s deals, the Financial Times reports.

Solomon’s predecessor Lloyd Blankfein had also been involved, as had other senior people, including then chief operating officer of the bank Gary Cohn, and Andrew Vella, a partner who was co-head of the firm’s Asia-Pacific investment banking division and is now the unit’s chairman.

Vella was put on leave, FT said, after the US Department of Justice indicted two of former Goldman Sachs bankers, Tim Leissner and Roger Ng Chong Hwa recently.

Ng was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday and is to be extradited to the US, while Leissner has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to commit money laundering and bribe foreign officials.

Goldman Sachs is under scrutiny for helping 1MDB issue US$6.5 billion in bonds between 2012 and 2013, for which the Wall Street bank earned US $600 million in fees. FT said other banks told it that the sum was “hefty” and “should have raised red flags”.

The money raised from the bonds has led to the DoJ filing civil forfeiture suits to seize assets purportedly bought with the funds, with Penang-born businessman Low Teik Jho the alleged mastermind.

Low, who remains at large, has been charged by the DoJ along with Ng. In Malaysia, he has also been charged in absentia for money laundering.

The associate of former prime minister Najib Razak’s has denied all charges.

FT’s sources at Goldman Sachs said “everybody” – including the bank’s top men, Solomon and Blankfein – had reviewed the 1MDB deal as it involved Malaysian and Abu Dhabi state funds, in reference to the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

Another source there was more concern about whether the two state investment funds understood the fundraising process rather than whether money would be stolen.

Goldman Sachs is not expected to suffer much fallout, FT also reported, as clients in Asian markets other than Singapore and Malaysia were not bothered by the 1MDB scandal. – November 3, 2018.

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Comments

  • The entire bank should be shut down by the US regulators. They have profitted from fraud and money laundering purely motivated by greed and personal benefit to the senior executives including the former CEO.

    Posted 5 years ago by Gerard Lourdesamy · Reply

  • Understand that Goldman Sachs was involved in cheating billion from the late Libyan leader Gaddafi of the country sovereign fund.

    Posted 5 years ago by Jackal Way · Reply

  • Normally when a crime is committed, sacrificing one or two rogue employees like Tim Leissner and Roger Ng Chong Hwa would have been sufficient but when the entire board is involved, this cannot be normal.

    Posted 5 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply

  • GS is just one of the many evil scumbag thieves operating under kosher names like Goldman Sucks....

    Posted 5 years ago by Daniel yong · Reply