Feeling ‘horrible’ is not enough, Kit Siang tells Goldman Sachs
KUALA LUMPUR: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has demanded Goldman Sachs explain its role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal.
He said the global bank’s sentiment over the alleged misappropriation of 1MDB funds was insufficient as it needed to clarify how to compensate Malaysia over the “criminal breach of trust and kleptocracy”.
“It is not enough for the global mega bank Goldman Sachs to feel ‘horrible’ for its principal role in the international 1MDB corruption and money-laundering scandal. It is time for it to explain how it is going to compensate 32 million Malaysians for its criminal breach of trust and kleptocracy.
“It is crystal clear that without Goldman Sach’s (alleged) criminal role, the 1MDB scandal would not have become, in the words of former United States attorneygeneral 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 ‘nearly half of the US$3.5 billion in corruption proceeds we have restrained is related to just one enforcement action’ — the 1MDB scandal,” Lim said in his blog yesterday.
Lim quoted Goldman Sachs chief executive David Saloman in Singapore last week on the latter’s sentiment, that he felt “horrible” that two former employees “blatantly broke the law” in their dealings with 1MDB.
Lim said according to US 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 US Department of Justice (DoJ), Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty, and Rober Ng (Chong Hwa) and others, received large bonuses in connection with that promotion of the 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)?”
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said on Tuesday that the DoJ would return the monies misappropriated from 1MDB, amounting to about US$4.3 billion, including some from Goldman Sachs, which had been raised through bond offerings.
“Malaysians want to hear from Goldman Sachs on this issue and are awaiting the global titan in the financial industry to render justice to the Malaysian people who are the victims of the ‘horrible’ 1MDB kleptocratic scandal.
“The billions lost in the 1MDB scandal could go to creating jobs, provide places in schools and universities and to build clinics and hospitals for Malaysians and not to pad ill-gotten gains of crooks and kleptocrats.”