U.S. officials are bringing their first criminal charges in the 1MDB case. Prosecutors are going after two bankers, as well as the Malaysian man alleged to be at the heart of the scandal.
The U.S. Department of Justice is levying criminal charges against Jho Low, Tim Leissner, and Roger Ng over an alleged $4.5 billion graft scheme at 1MDB, it said in a statement.
The charges come nearly six months after a change of government in Malaysia which revived a nearly dormant probe into 1MDB, leading to charges against former Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.
Ng, a Goldman Sachs banker until 2016, was arrested in Malaysia on Thursday. Both he and Low, whom prosecutors believe was key to siphoning assets from the state fund, were charged with money-laundering and bribery.
Relinquishing Millions
Leissner, Goldman Sachs' main banker in southeast Asia until two years ago, was also charged with money-laundering and bribery. The German-born banker pleaded guilty and was ordered to forfeit more than $43 million.
Low remains AWOL, though a high-ranking Malaysian official hinted this week that the government knows where he is and is seeking his extradition. He was a regular customer at banks in Singapore including Banca della Svizzera Italiana, or BSI, and Falcon Private Bank (both were booted out of the city-state as a result).
A prominent Goldman Sachs whistleblower as well as Leissner himself, who will have cooperated with prosecutors before entering a guilty plea, will revive the scandal for the American investment bank.
«Fucking Scam»
New York-based Goldman underwrote major bond issues for 1MDB, taking a massive fee windfall in the process. U.S. prosecutors allege that bankers Ng and Leissner planned to use the bond proceeds to bribe Malaysian officials, but also take a cut for themselves.
The two are accused of bribing officials in Abu Dhabi as well as Malaysia. The official link between Abu Dhabi and 1MDB was for a $1 billion investment into Malaysian real estate, hospitality, and energy via a bond guarantee in 2009. But funds put up by 1MDB as collateral against the guarantee never reached Abu Dhabi, landing instead in private coffers.
1MDB has been called «kleptocracy at its worst» by the top U.S. legal enforcer and, more plainly, as «a fucking scam» by the subject of «The Wolf of Wall Street,» a Hollywood blockbuster which prosecutors allege was bankrolled in part by 1MDB money.
