Malaysia today filed criminal charges under local securities laws against Goldman Sachs subsidiaries over three bonds worth $6.5 billion that the US investment bank had handled for 1Malaysia Development Berhad […]
After punishing six bankers, Singapore is now investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s relationship with 1MDB – the Malaysian investment fund at the centre of global money laundering probes.
Bloomberg reports today that the island republic’s Commercial Affairs Department, the police’s economic crime unit and city prosecutors have interviewed current and former Goldman Sachs executives who worked on bond offerings from 1Malaysia Development Berhad. 1MDB is a multi-billion national investment board for Malaysia that is aimed on encourage economic development and business creation.
US authorities on Thursday moved to seize another $540 million in assets allegedly stolen in the 1MDB fraud and used to fund extravagant spending, the Justice Department announced.
“Today’s complaints reveal another chapter of this multi-year, multi-billion-dollar fraud scheme, bringing the total identified stolen proceeds to $4.5 billion,” acting US Assistant Attorney-General Kenneth Blanco said in a statement.
The Malaysian government is working towards the winding up of state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) under a plan spearheaded by a high-level government unit called the Budiman committee.
The state investment firm, which was established by Prime Minister Najib in 2009, is now being dissolved following allegations that its funds were used for personal reasons by the premier and his close associates, resulting in 1MDB’s debts peaking to $12 billion at one point.
The assets of the state development fund will be transferred in coming months to two companies owned by the Finance Ministry. These valuable assets are two massive plots of land in Kuala Lumpur and one on Penang island.
Switzerland’s Xavier Justo, jailed in Thailand for blackmailing his former employer in a case linked to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, will be among the thousands of prisoners pardoned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
"He met the condition for his release from prison after receiving the latest royal pardon, as he has less than one year of his jail term," Justo’s lawyer, Worasit Piriyawiboon told Malaysia’s Bernama news agency today. The Swiss national is expected to be released from prison in three to seven days after the announcement of the pardon.
Yeo Jiawei, former private banker, went on trial in Singapore on Monday in the first prosecution of suspects linked to a massive international money-laundering scandal centred on Malaysian state fund 1MDB.
State prosecutors described the sums involved as “staggering” and said Yeo allegedly pocketed $18.7 million.
Yeo, 33, did so through various means, including “illicit” schemes to swindle his own bank, added prosecutors, who accused him of playing a central role in the “most complex, sophisticated and largest” money-laundering case that the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) has ever come across, as the written statement issued at the trial reported.
