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SINGAPORE: Goldman Sachs Singapore will pay US $ 122 million (S $ 165 million) to the Singapore government for its role in bond offerings related to 1MDB, authorities said on Friday (October 23).
The payment comes after Goldman Sachs signed a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) on Thursday with the US Department of Justice over the 1MDB scandal. Under the terms of the deal, Goldman agreed to pay a $ 2.3 billion fine for violating anti-bribery laws and return $ 600 million in ill-gotten gains.
The Department of Trade Affairs (CAD) gave Goldman Sachs Singapore a 36-month conditional warning in lieu of prosecution on three counts of corruption, the authority said in a joint statement with the Attorney General’s Office (AGC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. (MORE).
Under the conditional warning, Goldman Sachs Singapore will pay US $ 122 million to the Singapore government within five business days from the date of the conditional warning, cooperate with CAD in its investigations related to 1MDB, and comply with the terms of the agreement of deferred processing.
Goldman Sachs Singapore will also return $ 61 million to the Malaysian authorities; The fee represents what you earned from the 1MDB bonus offers.
“The total amount paid or payable by Goldman Sachs Singapore under the conditional warning is therefore US $ 183 million,” the statement said.
READ: Hong Kong fines Goldman Sachs record US $ 350 million for 1MDB failures
The scandal dates back to the government of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, which created the 1MDB fund in 2009.
The bank was investigated for its role in raising $ 6.5 billion in three bond sales between 2012 and 2013 for the Malaysian government’s sovereign wealth fund.
The United States Department of Justice has said that senior fund officials and their associates stole more than $ 4.5 billion from 1MDB between 2009 and 2015 to pay for real estate, art and other luxury items, with the help of bankers. from Goldman.
Singapore authorities said in their statement on Friday that CAD had investigated Goldman Sachs Singapore and two of its former CEOs, Tim Leissner and Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng, in connection with the bond offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs. . International for 1MDB subsidiaries.
In 2018, the Justice Department filed criminal charges against Leissner and Ng.
At his trial, Leissner pleaded guilty to conspiring with Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho and Ng to use part of the proceeds from the 1MDB bail to pay kickbacks and kickbacks to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
Ng is awaiting trial, while Low, also known as Jho Low, remains at large.
INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTY REVIEW
Friday’s statement also said that MAS has directed Goldman Sachs Singapore to appoint an independent external third party to review the local office’s actions to remedy deficiencies discovered during a 2016 inspection of its governance of risk and controls in relation to the 1MDB bonus offers.
Following the inspection in 2017, Goldman Sachs Singapore had to take several corrective actions to address the identity gap. The company’s internal audit or corrective actions were completed earlier this year in June.
READ: Former BSI banker banned for life by MAS for over US $ 5 million in ‘secret earnings’ linked to 1MDB scandal
“In view of the severity of the control deficiencies identified in MAS’s inspection and the corruption offenses underpinning the DPA and the conditional warning, MAS has directed Goldman Sachs Singapore to designate an external party to conduct a rigorous and independent verification. of the effectiveness and sustainability of the corrective measures, ”the statement said.
“MAS will also closely monitor the implementation of any additional measures that GSSP is required to take as part of the DPA.”
