Goldman Sachs hit with record fines in the US over its role in 1MDB scandal

MLex Market Insight

As corruption and embezzlement scandals go, the 1MDB affair was breathtaking in both its scale and its audacity. In 2015, then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was accused of channeling into personal bank accounts funds from 1Malaysia Development Berhard, a government-run strategic development company. A total of 4.5 billion US dollars went missing, with most of it still unaccounted for. The role played in moving the stolen funds out of the country by commercial bank Goldman Sachs has prompted the US investigation that culminated in a record fine, earmarked for enforcers in the US, the UK and Singapore. The $2.9 billion penalty has highlighted how the bank’s safeguards failed to stop the suspicious transfers and how enforcers around the world can work together to clamp down on lax oversight.