Illustrative image (Source: Sabi News)Kuala Lumpur (VNA) – Malaysian prosecutors said on March 18 that theywould summon representatives of two units of US Investment Bank Goldman Sachsin London and Hong Kong to appear at a June hearing of a case linked tocorruption in state investment fund 1MDB.
Prosecutor Aaron PaulChelliah told reporters that fresh summonses will be served on the bank's HongKong and London offices ahead of the next pre-trial hearing on June 24.
Soon after beingelected in May 2018, the new government charged three units of Goldman Sachsfor misleading investors by making untrue statements and omitting key facts inrelation to bond issues totaling 6.5 billion USD for state fund 1MalaysiaDevelopment Berhad (1MDB).
However, on March 18, onlythe Singapore unit of Goldman Sachs appeared at a pre-trial hearing in a KualaLumpur court as a respondent.
On December 17, 2018,Malaysia filed criminal charges against Goldman Sachs and two of the US bank'sformer employees Tim Leissner and Ng Chong Hwa.
According to AttorneyGeneral Tommy Thomas, the charges arise from the commission and abetment offalse or misleading statements by all the accused in order to dishonestlymisappropriate 2.7 billion USD from the proceeds of three bonds issued by thesubsidiaries of 1MDB, which were arranged and underwritten by Goldman Sachs.
After assuming power,Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad declared to give priority to addressingcorruption and taking back losses of the 1MDB fund that was established byformer PM Najib Razak in 2009.
Najib has been accusedof involving in the loss of billions of USD in the bank’s transactions withforeign partners. He has pleaded not guilty.
The MalaysianGovernment set up a special task force to investigate the fund with the supportfrom the US, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada, and other related countries.-VNA
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