Topic
1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) is a state investment fund that came under investigation for alleged impropriety in July 2015, after reports emerged that investigators traced some US$700 million wired into Prime Minister Najib’s bank accounts. Both the fund and the premier denied wrongdoing, but the attorney general launched an investigation into alleged graft. 1MDB was 42 billion ringgit (HK$86 billion) in debt at the time of the scandal.
Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has bared its teeth in many cases of malpractice and should spare no effort to safeguard city’s reputation as a global financial hub.
Whatever the political fallout from the conviction and jailing of former prime minister Najib Razak, the country’s courts deserve a pat on the back.
- The Securities and Futures Commission imposed HK$369.75 million (US$47.10 million) in fines last year, versus HK$72.1 million in 2021
- The watchdog completed 193 investigations last year, an increase of 47 per cent from 131 cases in 2021
Kee Kok Thiam’s family said he suffered a ‘sudden massive stroke’, weeks after he was reportedly questioned by Malaysia’s corruption authorities.
Malaysia’s Anti Corruption Commission said in a statement that it had confirmed the fugitive Malaysian financier’s whereabouts with several eyewitnesses, including another 1MDB suspect.
Malaysia’s Law Minister Azalina Othman Said confirmed the anti-corruption body has been cooperating with foreign agencies to speed up the process of bringing Low back to Malaysia.
The platform, called Cosmic, is meant to make it easier for financial institutions to share information on risky clients, and detect and deter scams, money laundering and terrorism financing.
Kimora Lee, ex-wife of former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, claims shares she bought with money earned from her modelling career and clothing line were wrongly included as proceeds of his crimes.
PM Anwar Ibrahim says his administration is working with ‘many countries’ to repatriate Low, who masterminded the looting of US$4.5 billion from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Prosecutors accused Pras Michel of plotting with Low to attempt to influence the administrations of US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.
The ex-Fugees member says the Malaysian tycoon was willing to ‘spend any type of money’, but his ‘party guy’ reputation made it hard to get fundraiser invites.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said a government task force was scrutinising the 2020 deal with Goldman, adding that it was a matter of recovering public funds.
Request for pardon to be deliberated by the Pardons Board which includes the king and PM Anwar Ibrahim, who has brushed aside concerns of conflict of interest.
Readers discuss Malaysia’s case review rule, recruiting police officers from mainland China, and why Hong Kong’s education system must stop producing exam-passing robots.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also said there is no issue of conflict of interest with him being part of the Pardons Board.
Grammy-winning US rapper Pras Michel of hip-hop group the Fugees is accused of illegally lobbying on the fugitive Malaysian financier’s behalf as well as acting as an unregistered agent of China.
The subject of a possible contribution of up to US$30 million came up during ‘casual conversation’, the US star said during Fugees rapper Pras Michel’s foreign influence trial.
In a 4-1 judgment, Malaysia’s highest court ruled that the ex-prime minister had failed on all three counts in his challenge to overturn his conviction.
Prosecutors said Michel was paid US$70 million to funnel money from Low through straw donors to Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and influence Trump to return dissident Guo Wengui to China.
The Malaysian financier was sentenced alongside a Kuwaiti sheikh and 3 other accomplices in the latest case stemming from the multibillion-dollar scam that saw Malaysian public money used to bankroll a global spending spree.
Legal threat comes after PM Anwar Ibrahim made a thinly veiled attack on Mahathir Mohamad, potentially reigniting a decades-old feud.
Money and assets were returned to the government last year after an investigation into Rohana Rozhan’s alleged involvement in embezzled funds.
Ng’s lawyer has asked a US judge to let him serve his 10-year prison term for 1MDB-linked offences in a low-security federal facility where singer Lauryn Hill was imprisoned, and which served as inspiration for the hit Netflix show.
Johari Abdul Ghani said the government should review its deal with the bank for its role in the scandal as the US$2.5 billion figure agreed upon was too little.
Ng was earlier convicted of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, in a scandal that rocked the country’s politics.
Prosecutors said the length of the prison term they are seeking for Ng is justified under US federal sentencing guidelines because of the size of the fraud.
The reality TV star once played a card game at a Las Vegas casino and won US$350,000 worth of chips.
A judge said prosecutors failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove their case that Najib tampered with an audit report on scandal-wracked state fund 1MDB.
The ex-Goldman Sachs banker is pleading for leniency and no additional jail time when he’s sentenced in the US next week for his role in the looting of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
The government brushed aside Ng’s pre-sentencing court report, saying he appeared to be trying to relitigate the case.
