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Ex-Goldman Banker to Malaysia Fund Subpoenaed in U.S. Probe

• Prosecutors seeking information about state investment fund
• Outside law firm said helping Goldman review 1MDB dealings
  
  
  A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker has become entangled 

  in a sprawling investigation of the Malaysian state investment fund 

  as U.S. authorities turn to him for information.

  Tim Leissner was issued a subpoena about the Malaysia matter 

  in late February, according to three people briefed on the matter, 

  just days after Goldman Sachs confirmed he had left the firm. 

  Leissner, a German national, was most recently chairman of 

  the firm’s Southeast Asia operations but had taken personal 

  leave and relocated to Los Angeles by early this year, 

  according to people with knowledge of the move.

  

  Tim Leissner and wife Kimora Lee Simmons, in Sept. 2015.

   

  Photographer: Presley Ann/PatrickMcMullan.com via AP Photo

  From Malaysia to 

  Switzerland to the 

  U.S. investigators 

  have been trying to 

  trace whether 

  money might have 

  flowed out of the 

  fund and illegally 

  into personal accounts. 

  Accusations have boomeranged and been called politically motivated 

  even as authorities outside Malaysia press ahead with their inquiries.

  Prosecutors in the Justice Department’s kleptocracy asset-recovery 

  unit are investigating whether funds were embezzled from 1Malaysia 

  Development Bhd., known as 1MDB, by politically connected people 

  in Malaysia, the people said. The FBI’s New York office is leading the 

  investigation and is trying to determine if any U.S. laws were broken, 

  according to one of the people briefed on the subpoena issued to Leissner.

  At this point, it is unclear what information Leissner might be able to 

  provide. Leissner’s attorney, Jonathan Cogan of Kobre & Kim, 

  didn’t respond to a phone call and e-mail requesting comment. 

  At a Beverly Hills, California, residence linked in public records 

  to Leissner’s family, a woman who answered the intercom said 

  Leissner wasn’t at home. He didn’t respond to written questions 

  left there. At the Justice Department, spokesman Peter Carr 

  declined to comment, as did Kelly Langmesser, a spokeswoman 

  for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office.

  Local Projects

  Leissner championed a series of bond sales that raised $6.5 billion 

  for the Malaysian fund and were notable for the above average fees 

  generated for Goldman. Since the fund’s beginning in 2009, 

  controversy has raged over whether money was spent as intended 

  for local projects like a financial center in Kuala Lumpur or 

  siphoned off for personal benefit. The finger-pointing within 

  Malaysia intensified with the early 2015 news report that the fund 

  had missed a loan payment, which it later paid.

  Goldman Sachs is working with an outside law firm to conduct 

  an internal examination and is reviewing its own role in helping 

  1MDB raise capital, according to two of the people. There is no 

  indication that Goldman engaged in any wrongdoing, according 

  to the two. The bank is cooperating with the 

  Justice Department’s efforts to gather information, they said.

  Michael DuVally, a spokesman for Goldman, declined to comment.

  Putting its own capital at risk, Goldman earned commissions

   and expenses of $593 million for its role issuing bonds for 

  1MDB, or more than 9 percent of the proceeds, well above 

  the industry norm.

  Internal Inquiry

  Leissner worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years and is married 

  to former U.S. fashion model and designer Kimora Lee Simmons.

  An internal Goldman Sachs investigation found Leissner had 

  written an unauthorized reference letter to another financial 

  institution last year, according to a person familiar with the matter, 

  who wouldn’t say whom the letter was about or what sparked 

  the probe. After concluding the investigation, which included 

  scanning Leissner’s e-mail messages, Goldman Sachs placed 

  him on leave and he later resigned, the person said. 

  The Wall Street Journal, which reported on the reference 

  letter earlier Tuesday, said it also included statements that 

  Goldman Sachs believed to be inaccurate. 

  Cogan didn’t respond to requests for comment on the 

  circumstances of Leissner’s departure.

  Leissner was named head of investment banking in Singapore 

  in August 2002 and became a partner in 2006. He was 

  instrumental in building business in Malaysia and the region.

  The Monetary Authority of Singapore said in an e-mailed 

  statement that it was “co-operating actively with several 

  jurisdictions” in the case. The MAS said that Leissner left the 

  city-state in 2011, and that while Goldman Sachs announced in 

  2014 that he would move back to Singapore as the bank’s chairman 

  of Southeast Asia, the move never happened.

  Investment Woes

  Since Prime Minister Najib Razak started 1MDB seven years ago, 

  the fund’s debt levels have swelled amid allegations of financial 

  irregularities lodged by opposition officials. The fund, whose 

  advisory board is chaired by Najib, said in February 2015 that it 

  would wind down its assets.

  The prime minister has said accusations of misappropriations are 

  politically motivated and has denied any wrongdoing. The 

  allegations have sparked a feud with former premier Mahathir 

  Mohamad, who has called for Najib to step down, citing what he 

  characterized as Najib’s mismanagement of the economy as well 

  as 1MDB.

  

  Malaysian police seize equipment from the 1MDB office in Kuala Lumpur in July 2015.

   

  Photographer: Mohd Rasfan/AFP via Getty Images

  In July, the 

  Malaysian attorney 

  general said a

   special task force 

  investigating 1MDB 

  looked into deposits 

  into Najib’s bank 

  account amounting 

  to hundreds of millions of dollars ahead of the 2013 general election. 

  The prime minister has said the funds were not used for private benefit 

  and Malaysia’s Attorney General said the money was a political 

  contribution from the Saudi royal family. 

  The Attorney General said Najib returned $620 million to the 

  Saudi donors. In January, the official, Mohamed Apandi Ali, 

  cleared Najib of any corruption charges related to the Saudi donation.

  Representatives of 1MDB have denied transferring funds to Najib’s 

  personal accounts. Najib’s office, the attorney-general’s office and 

  the country’s anti-graft agency were not immediately available for 

  comment. A spokesperson for 1MDB referred queries to a February 

  statement that the fund had not been contacted by any foreign 

  legal authorities on matters related to the company.

  Switzerland and Singapore

  Investigators outside Malaysia are still trying to trace where money 

  from the investment funds might have gone. The Swiss Attorney 

  General froze accounts holding tens of millions of dollars last year 

  as part of a criminal investigation into whether $4 billion was 

  embezzled from state-linked Malaysian companies, with some of 

  it making its way into Swiss accounts of former Malaysian officials.

  “The monies believed to have been misappropriated would have been 

  earmarked for investment in economic and social development 

  projects in Malaysia,” the Swiss authority said in a statement in January.

  The Swiss officials asked for assistance from Malaysia, and 

  subsequently said the Malaysian prime minister wasn’t one of the 

  public officials accused in the matter.

  Singapore’s central bank said in February that it froze a large 

  number of accounts linked to possible money laundering of 1MDB funds.

  sumber.bloomberg

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