Singapore to Ban Former Goldman Banker in Connection With 1MDB Scandal -- Update
December 02 2016 - 12:48AM
Dow Jones News
By Jake Maxwell Watts and P.R. Venkat
SINGAPORE--Singapore authorities said on Friday they plan to
sanction Goldman Sachs Group's former top executive in Southeast
Asia after the banker allegedly wrote an unauthorized reference
letter for a Malaysian who U.S. authorities believe is at the
center of one of the world's largest-ever financial scandals.
Goldman put the banker, Tim Leissner, its former chairman of
Southeast Asia, on leave at the start of this year after it
discovered he had written the reference letter on behalf of Jho
Low, the young Malaysian financier who U.S. authorities have named
as a key figure in the scandal revolving around Malaysian state
investment fund 1MDB.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, in a statement, said it had
decided to ban Mr. Leissner from working in the city state's
financial markets for 10 years. It said the former Goldman banker
had written the letter to a Luxembourg financial institution
claiming that Goldman had done due diligence on Mr. Low and had not
found any concerns of money laundering. "These statements were
untrue and were made by Mr. Leissner without Goldman Sachs'
knowledge or consent," the statement said.
The U.S. Department of Justice in a lawsuit earlier this year
alleged that more than $3 billion had been siphoned out of the
fund, 1Malaysia Development Bhd., and gone into real estate,
Hollywood movies and other assets. The suit said Mr. Low had
benefited from some of the stolen money. The 1MDB fund has denied
any wrongdoing.
The MAS also said it had levied million-dollar fines on the
local branches of Standard Chartered Ltd. and private bank Coutts
& Co Ltd. for their handling of accounts related to the 1MDB
scandal. It fined Standard Chartered S$5.2 million ($3.6 million),
and imposed a fine of S$2.4 million on Coutts.
Attempts to reach Mr. Leissner, who is living in Los Angeles,
were not immediately successful. He has denied wrongdoing. Mr.
Leissner was not questioned by Singapore authorities over the
matter, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Goldman Sachs made around $600 million in 2012 and 2013 in fees,
selling a total of $6.5 billion in bonds for 1MDB, among its
largest paydays anywhere in the world in those years. Much of the
proceeds of the bonds were siphoned off immediately into offshore
accounts, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a lawsuit this
summer.
The bank said in a statement Friday that the MAS action against
Mr. Leissner was related to a matter discovered in January 2016
that it reported to Singapore authorities. The bank added that it
is cooperating with authorities.
Attempts to reach Mr. Low, whose whereabouts is unknown, were
unsuccessful.
Standard Chartered said in a statement it regrets that
1MDB-related transactions passed through the bank. It said it had
reported the suspicious transactions, cooperated with authorities
and had taken action to strengthen its controls.
A spokesperson for Coutts could not immediately be reached for
comment.
Write to Jake Maxwell Watts at jake.watts@wsj.com and P.R.
Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2016 00:33 ET (05:33 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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