After the US and Singapore, Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has recently banned Tim Leissner, Goldman Sach’s former Southeast Asia chairperson, for life.
The former banker was accused by the US Federal Reserve of diverting billions of dollars from various transactions of the Malaysian state fund 1MDB, which included three bond offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs in 2012 and 2013.
Also involved in the scandal was Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, who remains at large.
The former banker pleaded guilty to charges that he conspired to launder money and violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the US.
Leissner agreed to forfeit US$43.7 million and admitted to bribing officials in Malaysia and the UAE to for bond deal wins for the investment bank.
The banker blamed Goldman Sachs’s “culture of secrecy” for leading him to hide wrongdoing from the compliance department.
In response to that, the bank said in a statement that Leisser had repeatedly violated its policies and procedures and deliberately hid certain activities from it.
