GOLDMAN CHAIRMAN BLANKFEIN THE MYSTERY MAN IN 1MDB MEETING
KUALA LUMPUR: Years before Goldman Sachs Group Inc arranged bond deals now at the heart of globe-spanning corruption probes, the firm’s then-chief executive officer Lloyd Blankfein helped forge ties with Malaysia and 1Malaysia Development Bhd, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Blankfein was the unidentified high-ranking Goldman Sachs executive referenced in United States court documents, who attended a 2009 meeting with former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, they said.
The meeting was arranged with the help of men who are now tied to the subsequent plundering of 1MDB, according to US court documents unsealed last week.
The meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York was set up and attended by two key figures in the 1MDB scandal — businessman Jho Low and former Goldman partner Tim Leissner — one person with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The high-level gathering laid the groundwork for a relationship that would prove profitable for the investment bank. Since then, the use of US$6.5 billion (RM27.1 billion) that Goldman raised for 1MDB has sparked probes across several nations, and entangled the US bank in a high-profile corruption probe.
A spokesman for Goldman Sachs declined to comment on Blankfein’s behalf.
The bank said it believed proceeds of debt sales it underwrote were for development projects and that Leissner withheld information from the firm.
Low’s presence at the meeting with Blankfein, one of the most senior executives in global finance, illustrates the meteoric rise of a largely unknown financier, who had managed to cultivate relationships with senior Malaysian government officials, including Najib.
By the time of the meeting, Low’s lavish spending habits were New York tabloid fodder.
Starting about two months before the meeting, according to US filings, Leissner and another Goldman banker began a yearslong effort to bring Low aboard as a client, a request that compliance workers at the firm consistently denied.
There’s no indication that Blankfein was aware of the internal assessments of Low, or knew the identities of the people at the meeting.
The documents filed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent in June said that evidence supports Low was at the meeting.
The agenda for the November 2009 meeting was mapped out by Low and included a “debrief ” with Najib and the “1MDB boys” after Goldman executives had left, the documents show.