The Goldman Sachs chief executive David Saloman said in Singapore last week that he felt “horrible” that two former employees “blatantlyh broke the law” in their dealings with 1MDB.
It is not enough for the global mega-bank Goldman Sachs to feel “horrible” for its principal role in the interntional 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal, as it is time for it to explain how it is going to compensate 32 million Malaysians for its criminal breach of trust and kleptocracy, for it is crystal clear that without Goldman Sach’s criminal role, the 1MDB scandal would not have become, in the words of the former United States Attorney-General Jeff Sessions at the inaugural Global Forum on Asset Recovery last December , “kleptocracy at its worst”.
At the inaugural Global Forum on Asset Recovery, Jeff Sessions said that “nearly half of the US$3.5 billion in corruption proceeds we have restrained is related to just one enforcement action” – the 1MDB scandal.
Jeff Sessions told the Global Forum:
“That action was related to a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund known as 1MDB. 1MDB was created by the Malaysian government to promote long-term economic development for the benefit of the Malaysian people.
“But allegedly corrupt officials and their associates reportedly used the funds for a lavish spending spree: $200 million for real estate in Southern California and New York. $130 million in artwork. $100 million in an American music label. Not to mention a $265 million yacht.
“In total, 1MDB officials allegedly laundered more than $4.5 billion in funds through a complex web of opaque transactions and fraudulent shell companies with bank accounts in countries ranging from Switzerland and Singapore to Luxembourg and the United States. This is kleptocracy at its worst.
“Today, the U.S. Department of Justice is working to provide justice to the victims of this alleged scheme.”
But such “kleptocracy at its worst” would not have been possible without the principal role of Goldman Sachs.
According to United States prosecutors, Goldman Sachs generated about US$600 million in fees for its work with 1MDB, which included three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 that raised US$6.5 billion.
The two former Goldman Sachs bankers indicted by the United States Department of Justice, Tim Leissner who pleaded guilty and Rober Ng and others received large bonuses in connection with that promotion of 1MDB kleptocracy.
It is reported that Leissner and Ng have agreed to forfeit some RM300 million of ill-gotten gains in the 1MDB scandal.
But what about the US$600 million in fees which Goldman Sachs illegally earned for three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 that raised US$6.5 million (RM27.25 billion)?
The Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said in Singapore yesterday that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) will hand back money which was misappropriated from 1Malaysia Development Board (1MDB), which amounted to about US4.3 billion (RM18 billion), which included some money which US investment bank Goldman Sachs had raised through bond offerings.
Malaysians want to hear from Goldman Sachs on this issue and are awaiting the global titan in the intentional financial industry to render justice to the Malaysian people who are the victims of the “horrible” 1MDB kleptocratic scandal, as the billions lost in the 1MDB scandal could go to create jobs, provide places in schools and universities and to build clinic and hospitals for Malaysians and not to pad ill-gotten gains of crooks and kleptocrats.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Wednesday, 14th November 2018)
