Goldman Sachs is negotiating with federal prosecutors to pay a fine of as much as $2 billion, and have a subsidiary plead guilty, to settle claims about its role in a scheme to loot billions from a sovereign wealth fund in Malaysia, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The case stems from a scheme to siphon off more than $2.7 billion of the $6.5 billion raised for the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, known as 1MDB. Federal authorities have that said Jho Low, a flamboyant Malaysian financier, was the principal architect of the plot to bribe public officials that has led to the guilty plea of a former Goldman Sachs partner and criminal charges against another of the bank’s executives.
The investigation is focused on violations of money laundering and foreign bribery laws. The settlement could include a guilty plea from Goldman Sachs’s subsidiary in Asia, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are ongoing. The bank may agree to include an outside monitor to review its compliance procedures, they said.
A separate fine paid to the government of Malaysia and other regulatory agencies could raise the total financial penalty to above $2 billion, the people said. The settlement could be completed by the end of January.
“Resolution discussions are ongoing, and it is irresponsible to speculate on an outcome,” said Andrew Williams, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs. A spokesman for federal prosecutors in Brooklyn who are overseeing the investigation declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the potential guilty plea.
The authorities say the billions looted from the fund paid for an enormous spending spree by Malaysian public officials and others that included the purchases of diamonds, Birkin bags, paintings by Picasso and Monet, as well as financing for the Hollywood film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Federal prosecutors have already seized hundreds of millions of dollars in assets they say were bought with stolen money.
The scandal toppled the government of Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak, who is currently on trial in Malaysia over charges connected to the 1MDB fund.
Last year, a former Goldman partner, Tim Leissner, pleaded guilty to charges in the United States for helping orchestrate the fraud, which involved the sale of Malaysia government bonds. The bank has said that Leissner acted on his own and that it was cooperating with the United States government to help the investigation.
On Monday, Mr. Leissner was barred by securities regulators from working in the banking industry. The settlement said unnamed “senior executives” at Goldman knew Mr. Leissner did not tell the truth during an Oct. 10, 2012, meeting when he was asked whether Mr. Low, whom Goldman’s compliance department had declined several times to approve as a client, had any involvement in the bond deals. Prosecutors in charging documents have tended to avoid using the phrase “senior executives” to refer to others at Goldman who may have known about the bribery scheme.
The bank has said Mr. Leissner’s conduct was not sanctioned or approved by his bosses.
Mr. Low, who was also charged by federal prosecutors and Malaysian authorities, is believed to be living in China and has not made an appearance in court to respond to the charges.
Source : Nytimes
