In December 2018, Malaysia filed lawsuits against three Goldman Sachs subsidiaries and two executives of the US bank, Ng Chong Hwa, who is also known as Roger Ng, and Tim Leissner.
The three subsidiaries are Goldman Sachs International, Goldman Sachs Asia and Goldman Sachs Singapore.
They were accused of embezzling US$2.7 billion from the 1MDB fund and wrongdoings related to bond offerings for the fund from 2012-2013.
Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB lied to Goldman Sachs about the use of transaction proceeds.
Both Roger Ng and Leissner were charged in the US. Malaysia has extradited Roger Ng to the US to face criminal charges while Leissner has pleaded guilty.
After assuming power, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad declared to give priority to addressing corruption and taking back losses of the 1MDB fund that was established by former PM Najib Razak in 2009.
Najib has been accused of involving in the loss of billions of USD in the bank’s transactions with foreign partners. He has pleaded not guilty.
The Malaysian Government set up a special task force to investigate the fund with the support from the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada, and other related countries.
