Goldman Sachs and two former bankers have been hit with criminal charges by Malaysian authorities over the 1MDB corruption scandal.

The country’s attorney general, Tommy Thomas, said Goldman subsidiaries and ex-bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng Chong Hwa are accused of helping to misappropriate $2.7bn, bribing officials and giving false statements when helping to issue bonds that would raise proceeds for state development fund 1MDB.

They are being charged alongside former 1MDB employee Jasmine Loo Ai Swan and Low Taek Jho, a Malaysian financier who has been accused of masterminding the fraud.

Malaysia is looking to claw back lost money by imposing criminal fines against the accused that rise to more than $3bn once the fees received by Goldman Sachs for the bond sales are factored in.

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Vast sums were allegedly looted from 1MDB in a fraud that involved former Malaysian leader Najib Razak and his associates, and used to buy everything from yachts to artwork, and fund the production of Hollywood films including The Wolf of Wall Street. It also contributed to the last Malaysian government’s shock defeat at historic elections in May.

“Malaysia considers the allegations in the charges against all the accused to be grave violations of our securities laws,” Thomas said in a statement. “And to reflect their severity, prosecutors will seek criminal fines against the accused well in excess of the $2.7bn misappropriated from the bonds proceeds and $600m in fees received by Goldman Sachs.”

If the accused are convicted, prosecutors have said they will push for sentences of up to 10 years in prison for Leissner and Ng.

“Their fraud goes to the heart of our capital markets, and if no criminal proceedings are instituted against the accused, their undermining of our financial system and market integrity will go unpunished,” Thomas added.

News of the prosecution is a fresh blow for Goldman, with the Wall Street giant’s corporate culture having come under increased scrutiny as details of the scandal continue to emerge.

The US Department of Justice has already charged Leissner and Ng for conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1MDB. Leissner last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ng was arrested last month in Malaysia. Low Taek Jho, was also hit with charges but is still at large.

Responding to the new charges from Malaysia, Goldman Sachs said:
“We believe these charges are misdirected, will vigorously defend them and look forward to the opportunity to present our case. The firm continues to cooperate with all authorities investigating these matters.”

Goldman has come under fire for its role in underwriting bonds totalling $6.5bn on three occasions for 1MDB, for which they earned $600m in fees.

Leissner, who worked as south-east Asia chairman and managing director at Goldman, and Ng, a former managing director at the bank, conspired with Jho and others to bribe Malaysian officials to ensure that Goldman was selected to work on the bonds, Thomas said in a statement.

The money earned by Goldman for the bond issuances was also “several times higher than the prevailing market rates and industry norms”, the statement said.

Those accused personally benefited from receiving stolen funds and also got large bonuses and improved their career prospects, Thomas claimed. False statements were presented to investors suggesting the proceeds of the issuances would be used for legitimate purposes, he added.

Malaysia’s prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who came to power in part on a pledge to investigate the 1MDB scandal, has been taking an increasingly tough line against Goldman and has accused the bank of cheating the country.

Since his election defeat, former Malaysian leader Najib Razak has been arrested and hit with dozens of charges over the scandal and is likely to face a long jail term.

Low has said he is innocent. Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing. Reuters reported on Monday that lawyers for Leissner and Ng could not be reached immediately.

THE CASE

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal or 1MDB scandal is an ongoing political scandal occurring in Malaysia. In 2015, Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak was accused of channelling over RM 2.67 billion (nearly USD 700 million) from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a government-run strategic development company, to his personal bank accounts.The event triggered widespread criticism among Malaysians, with many calling for Najib Razak's resignation – including Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, one of Najib's predecessors as Prime Minister, who eventually defeated Najib to return to power after the 2018 general election.

Political leader Anwar Ibrahim has openly questioned the credentials of 1MDB. He told Parliament that according to the records held by the companies commission, the company "has no business address and no appointed auditor." According to its publicly filed accounts, 1MDB has nearly RM 42 billion (USD 11.73 billion) in debt Some of this debt resulted from a $3 billion state-guaranteed 2013 bond issue led by Goldman Sachs, who is believed to have made as much as $300 million in fees from that deal alone, although it disputes this figure Conference of Rulers in Malaysia has called for the investigations by the government to be completed as soon as possible, saying that the issue is causing a crisis of confidence in Malaysia.

After the 2018 election, the newly elected Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, said there was enough evidence to reopen a probe into the 1MDB scandal.[7] In the months after the election, Malaysian authorities barred Najib Razak from leaving the country, seized a huge haul of cash and valuable items from premises linked to him, and charged him with criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power, while Jho Low was charged with money laundering. Having filed complaints alleging that more than US$ 4.5 billion was diverted from 1MDB by Jho Low and other conspirators including officials from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Department of Justice said it would continue to pursue investigations into 1MDB and looked forward to working with Malaysian authorities .

(Published by The Guardian, December 17, 2018)