Archive for March 11th, 2016

Goldman Sachs Hire Came as Bank Pitched 1MDB

By TOM WRIGHT in Hong Kong and JUSTIN BAER in New York
Wall Street Journal
March 10, 2016

Wall Street firm hired daughter of close ally to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. hired the daughter of a close ally to Malaysia’s prime minister around the time the firm’s bankers were pitching business to the country’s government investment fund, people familiar with the matter said.

Goldman is looking into the hiring as part of its investigation into the firm’s actions related to the Malaysia fund and into the Wall Street firm’s former Southeast Asia chairman, Tim Leissner, said one of the people.

The probe is also part of its broader investigation into the hiring of relatives of government officials or other well-connected people, the person said. Goldman is among several international banks under investigation by U.S. authorities to determine whether their hiring practices violated antibribery laws, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bans U.S. companies from giving anything of value to a foreign official to gain an unfair advantage or business favors. Goldman has declined to comment on the U.S. probe.

Neither Goldman nor Mr. Leissner have been accused of wrongdoing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ministry of Defence should not be a ‘black hole’ of information

— Liew Chin Tong
Malay Mail Online
March 10, 2016

MARCH 10 — Yesterday, my parliamentary question on the expenditures of AV-8 (8×8 armored vehicle) and Second Generation Patrol Vessel (SGPV) projects was turned down because it was classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

I am disappointed by the Speaker’s decision to gag this legitimate question.

Why is the Ministry of Defence refusing to give answers about the financial implications of the two projects?

While I fully understood the sensitivity of defence capability development, the financial aspect of the two projects should still be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. Particularly since these projects are the largest scale defence development programmeme in Malaysia’s history.

The rakyat deserve to know how their money is being spent on defense projects. Read the rest of this entry »

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