WILL NAJIB BE ASKED TO TESTIFY IN S'PORE: WITHIN DAYS, HALF OF 1MDB'S MONEY VANISHED WITH A LARGE PART ENDING UP IN HIS A/C

1MDB Trial To Start In June? More 1MDB Noose From Singapore / Straits Times

1. Here is some 1MDB noose from the Singapore Straits Times. You cannot read it in the New Straits Times, whose Group Editor just quit because he ran out of hypocrisy.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/goldman-sachs-probed-over-why-it-didnt-alert-authorities-to-unusual-funds-movement-at

Goldman Sachs probed over why it didn’t alert authorities to unusual funds movement at 1MDB

NEW YORK - US investigators to determine whether Goldman Sachs broke the law when it didn’t sound an alarm about a suspicious transaction at 1MDB, the WSJ reported on Monday (June 6).

probe relate to US$3 billion ($4.07 billion) the American bank raised via a bond issue for 1MDB.

Half of the money disappeared offshore days after Goldman sent the sum to 1MDB’s bank account at the Singapore unit of Swiss bank BSI, with some later ending up in Najib bank account, WSJ said, citing bank-transfer information.

BSI has been embroiled in probes in different jurisdictions into 1MDB. Its Singapore unit was last month shut down by the Monetary Authority of Singapore over suspicious transactions and fined S$13.3 million for 41 breaches of anti-money laundering rules including failure to conduct enhanced customer due diligence on “high risk accounts” and to monitor suspicious customer transactions.

1MDB money trail investigated in seven jurisdictions including Switzerland and US.

US have sought to schedule interviews with Goldman executives, WSJ said.

Goldman says it had no way of knowing how 1MDB would use the money it raised.

Investigators focusing whether Goldman failed to comply with US Bank Secrecy Act, which requires financial institutions to report suspicious transactions to regulators, said WSJ.

the law has been used against banks for failing to report money laundering in Mexico and ignoring red flags about the operations of Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff.

Proceeds from 1MDB's bond issue handled by Goldman Sachs in 2013 was supposed to fund a major real-estate project in Kuala Lumpur that was intended to boost Malaysia’s economy.

One question investigators are asking, reported WSJ, is why 1MDB needed the cash so quickly for a property-development project that would take years to complete.

Investigators also are looking into questions raised by Goldman’s lawyer on the deal, Kevin Wong, a Singapore-based partner with Linklaters, who sent a note to Goldman bankers alerting them to the fact the money was to be sent to a private bank, according to a person familiar with the matter.

2. Here is a comment on the same WSJ report by our Noose Correspondent In Singapore :

WSJ are being very polite re Goldman Sachs as they don't want to say / state the obvious.

Tim Leisser was complicit in the fraud, he was a partner of sorts and expedited the bonds, why where they on Goldman Sachs balance sheet and how long before they unloaded them?

Goldman Sachs Group broke the law when it didn’t sound any alarm about a suspicious transaction in Malaysia. Or worse still was Tim Leissner already complicit in the scheme, the mega fraud, with Jho Low and N___b - and the 4-5 key Arabs?

Remember Turki was paid a USD 70mill kick back (from stolen 1MDB funds) and the others split USD 5 bill, perhaps as much as USD 7-8 billion.

First issue is the US$3 billion Goldman Sachs raised via a bond issue for 1MDB. Days after Goldman sent the proceeds into a Swiss bank account controlled by 1MDB, half of the money disappeared offshore, with some later ending up in the prime minister’s bank account according to bank-transfer information viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The cash was supposed to fund a real-estate project to boost the country’s economy.

Investigators believe the bank may have had reason to suspect the money it raised wasn’t being used for its intended purpose.

One red flag, they believe, is that Goldman Sachs wired the US$3 billion in proceeds to a Singapore branch of a small Swiss private bank instead of to a large global bank, as would be typical for a transfer of that size.

Another is the timing of the bond sale and why it was rushed. The deal took place in March 2013, two months after Najib approached Goldman Sachs bankers during the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

And it occurred two months before voting in a tough election campaign for Najib, who used some of the cash from his personal bank account the Journal has reported, citing bank-transfer information.

Najib and AG say the money received in his personal accounts was a legal political donation from Saudi Arabia and most was returned.

Evidence and facts prove otherwise.

Tanore Finance which was the fake fraud conduit used, was set up by Jho Low associate Eric Tan. The company name was also floated in a fake letter from a fake SHEIKK.

Authorities in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg, USA, Hong Kong and UK all have the relevant facts/supporting evidence regarding Tanore Finance. They know the entire routing of the stolen billions.

Goldman had deep ties with 1MDB and Malaysia. Its top regional banker at the time, Tim Leissner, was present at a meeting to launch a predecessor of the fund in 2009.

Goldman Sachs later made hundreds of millions of dollars underwriting three bond deals worth a total of US$6.5 billion and advising on two acquisitions for 1MDB.

1MDB says proceeds from the bond offering were moved offshore, because they weren’t needed immediately. The fund denies sending money to Najib and says it is cooperating with probes. In January, Malaysia’s AG cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing.

Over that same period, Goldman Sachs also underwrote bonds for an important province in Malaysia and worked on IPOs for a Malaysian port operator and a major hospital operator.

Goldman Sachs has said it did proper due diligence on 1MDB. But several current and former Goldman executives said in interviews soon after the bond deal that because this was a government-owned fund run by the prime minister, the bank could largely rely on their word that the money was being used as intended.

The executives also said that corruption was common in many developing markets and the bank couldn’t do business there without interacting with people and organizations that were potentially corrupt.

The 1MDB fund is the focus of probes into alleged corruption in at least seven countries. Investigators believe more than US$6 billion of 1MDB’s money is unaccounted for.

Najib and his family used hundreds of millions of dollars originating with the fund to buy real estate, clothing and jewelry, as well as to help finance a Hollywood film, according to bank-transfer information.

The episode involving Goldman and 1MDB comes at a time when regulators are closely watching banks’ behavior and cracking down on money laundering.

After Najib asked Goldman to handle the bond offering, the bank effectively bought the entire US$3 billion issue, gave 1MDB the proceeds and then held the bonds on its balance sheet until it could sell them off to investors.

Goldman was paid about US$300 million, far above fees for similar offerings and one of the bank’s biggest paychecks of the year. Goldman has defended the fees as commensurate with the risk it assumed by buying the entire bond issue.

Later 1MDB claimed Goldman Sachs overcharged it and sought a partial refund. Goldman rejected it. Leissner resigned from Goldman Sachs earlier this year after bank investigators found he allegedly violated company policies by sending an unauthorized reference letter to another financial firm on behalf of a person involved with 1MDB.

One question investigators are asking is why 1MDB needed the cash so quickly for a property-development project that would take years to complete. Investigators also are looking into questions raised by Goldman’s lawyer on the deal, Kevin Wong, a Singapore-based partner with Linklaters, who sent a note to Goldman bankers alerting them to the fact the money was to be sent to a private bank.

Goldman checked the credentials of the bank, Switzerland’s BSI SA, and found no reason not to send money there, the person added. Wong declined to comment. A BSI spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

From BSI, half the $3 billion bond issue was funneled into offshore investment funds because it wasn’t needed immediately, 1MDB said.

Some of the money ended up in Devonshire Funds, run by a Bangkok-based financial firm, according to bank-transfer information reviewed by the Journal.

Devonshire in turn sent US$210 million to Tanore Finance, a now-defunct British Virgin Islands shell company. An employee of Devonshire declined to comment.

Tanore also received other money that originated with 1MDB, according to investigators and bank-transfer documents.

In March 2013—the same month Goldman had sold the $3 billion bond—Tanore transferred $681 million into Najib’s private bank account.

My comments : The Singapore Straits Times is the mouthpiece of the Singapore government. They are keeping the issue quite alive. This is today's issue of the Straits Times.

More Noose from Singapore later. - http://syedsoutsidethebox.blogspot.my/

half of the money disappeared offshore, with some later ending up in the prime minister’s bank account according to bank-transfer information viewed by The Wall Street Journal.