FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Bush and Obama Never Put Any Wall Street Bankers in Jail—But Mahathir Will!
Dec. 18, 2018 (EIRNS)— Malaysia’s Attorney General Tommy Thomas on Dec. 17 issued criminal charges under Malaysia’s security laws against Goldman Sachs and several Goldman employees for their role in the massive fraud carried out by the former government of Najib Razak and his One Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Goldman ran the $6.5 billion in bond issues for 1MDB, from which $2.4 billion went missing, $600 million went to Goldman in fees, and $700 million turned up in Najib’s personal bank accounts.
Although not a single banker went to jail under Bush or Obama for the massive crimes which brought on the last crash in 2008, Dr. Mahathir, who returned to power in the May election based to a great extent on his pledge to prosecute Najib and others involved, is not a pawn of Wall Street.
The Financial Times reported today: “Goldman Sachs International, based in London, Goldman Sachs (Singapore) PTE, and Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC, which is registered in Delaware but based in Hong Kong, were all named in the charge sheets, which were published on Tuesday [Dec. 18].... The charges also cast a wider net over Goldman and its global business, which market experts said could threaten the U.S. bank’s reputation if the charges were to result in prosecution.”
Malaysia’s Attorney General Thomas also said he would seek fines and jail sentences of up to 10 years against the bank and two former Goldman employees, Tim Leissner and Roger Ng Chong Hwa (who was also indicted in the U.S. last month for the same case), who are accused of conspiring with two 1MDB employees to bribe public officials to get the job of underwriting the bonds, and helping to divert $2.7 billion to private hands. Thomas said Malaysia would seek “multiples” of this sum, as well as the $600 million exorbitant fee charged by Goldman, in court.
Goldman’s initial response was to say that the Najib government lied to the bank about everything, and that their own hands are clean. But, as Mahathir demonstrated back in 1998 by cutting off the Soros speculators and the IMF dictates, when he imposed currency controls, he is not the puppet of Wall Street that Bush and Obama were.
