Goldman Sachs CEO apologises to M'sians for ex-banker's role in defrauding people

Holding his hands up.

Sulaiman Daud | January 17, 2019, 11:18 AM

The CEO of Goldman Sachs has apologised to the people of Malaysia for his former employee's role in the 1MDB scandal.

On Jan. 17 (Singapore time), CEO David Solomon said during a conference call discussing the bank's earnings that the financial services giant had to bear responsibility.

"It is very clear that the people of Malaysia were defrauded by many individuals, including the highest members of the prior government," said Solomon, according to CNN Business.

He said that Tim Leissner, Goldman's former Chairman of Southeast Asia, had admitted to being one of those individuals.

"For Leissner's role in that fraud, we apologise to the Malaysian people," said Solomon.

Leissner allegedly misled Goldman Sachs

Solomon recently took over the role from former CEO Lloyd Blankfein.

The new CEO remarked that morale at the bank remained "high" despite the fallout over the 1MDB scandal.

However, he said that Goldman employees were "extremely angry and upset" that a senior member of the bank was involved in such significant fraud.

According to the US Department of Justice, conspirators allegedly misappropriated US$4.5 billion (S$6.1 billion) from the 1MDB fund.

Leissner pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring to launder money from 1MDB.

Goldman has denied knowledge of Leissner's actions, and claimed that he had misled them.

In November 2018, in an interview with the Financial Times, Anwar Ibrahim railed against the bank and demanded Goldman to repay the US$600 million it was paid for arranging three bond sales for 1MDB.

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Top image Goldman Sach's video & TRT World YouTube