Legal
Former Goldmans CEO Met 1MDB-Linked Financier - Report

The former CEO has no recollection of meeting the financier, the report said.
Former Goldman
Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, who stepped down after
12 years in the post earlier in 2018, met twice with a Malaysian
financier at the centre of the 1MDB corruption scandal,
according to the Wall Street Journal late last Friday,
quoting unnamed sources.
One of the meetings took place after Goldmans’ compliance
department had raised alarms about the financier’s background and
said the firm should not do business with him, the newspaper
said.
The financier, Jho Low, was indicted this month by the US Justice
Department and charged with helping steal billions of dollars
from 1Malaysia Development Bhd. The Justice Department also
claims that two Goldman Sachs bankers took part in the scheme
while hiding their collaboration with Low from Goldman’s
management in New York.
The report said Blankfein’s meetings, held in 2009 and 2013 were
for him to meet Najib Razak, Malaysia’s then prime minister. The
talks discussions of 1MDB, the WSJ said, citing unnamed
sources.
The newspaper quoted a Goldman Sacha spokesman saying that
Blankfein met many people in his 12-year tenure and couldn’t have
known Malaysia’s leader would bring Low to either meeting.
Blankfein has no recollection of meeting Low, the spokesperson
said.
The 1MDB scandal has already led to investigations in the US,
Switzerland the Singapore. In Singapore, for example, banks such
as BSI and Falcon Private Bank have been ordered to cease
operations there because of serious compliance failings.