Sentence for ex-Goldman banker in 1MDB case ‘too short': Malaysian minister
Malaysia's Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani has called a two-year prison sentence for a former Goldman Sachs banker implicated in the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal too lenient.
On Thursday, New York judge Margo Brodie sentenced German-born banker Tim Leissner, a former chairman for Goldman Sachs in Southeast Asia, to two years in prison for his role in the scandal.
Leissner, who previously pleaded guilty to US bribery and money laundering counts, faced a maximum sentence of 25 years.
During sentencing, Brodie described Leissner's conduct as 'brazen and audacious'. Visibly emotional as he read out a statement in court, Leissner offered a 'sincere apology to the people of Malaysia' and said he 'deeply regret[s]' his actions.
Ghani, chairman of the 1MDB asset recovery taskforce, said on Friday that Leissner should have been given the maximum jail sentence as he was 'one of the masterminds' of the scheme, which saw billions of dollars in public money siphoned off Malaysia's investment fund.
The 1MDB fund was created as a vehicle to attract foreign investment for energy and infrastructure projects in Malaysia, but was pilfered by officials and bankers.
Malaysian and US authorities estimate that around $4.5bn was stolen in total, in an elaborate scheme that spanned the globe and implicated high-level officials, including former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was jailed in 2022.
In 2018, Leissner pleaded guilty to bribery and money laundering counts in relation to his role in the scandal, including paying roughly $2bn in bribes to foreign officials and splitting another $1bn in kickbacks with others in the scheme.
A US Department of Justice spokesperson said he will begin serving a 24-month sentence in September.
US prosecutors had called for leniency due to the 'extraordinary' assistance he had provided the probe. Leissner served as the star witness in the 2022 trial of his former colleague and Goldman Sachs Managing Director Roger Ng.
Judge Brodie sentenced Malaysian national Ng to 10 years' imprisonment in March 2023 for, among other crimes, 'conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled' from 1MDB and paying more than $1.6bn in bribes.
Leissner also provided details regarding the involvement of Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian financier known as 'Jho Low', who stands accused of stealing billions from the fund but remains at large.
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Voters in South Korea are choosing a new president to replace Yoon Suk-yeol who was impeached and removed from office over his brief and ill-fated martial law bid in December. The snap election on June 3 is pivotal, with implications for South Korea's democratic future, as well as its ties with China, the United States and its nuclear armed neighbour, North Korea. The winner – who will serve a single term of five-years – faces the task of addressing the fallout from the martial law decree, which lasted six hours but unleashed political chaos, including mass protests, a riot at a court and three caretaker leaders in six months. The new president will also have to tackle a deepening economic downturn and manage tariff negotiations with the US, which has imposed a 25 percent levy on key exports such as steel, aluminium and automobiles. 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On December 3, when Yoon declared martial law – in a bid to quash the Democratic Party-dominated parliament, which he portrayed as 'anti-state' and a 'den of criminals' – Lee rushed to the National Assembly and climbed the walls of the building to avoid the hundreds of armed troops deployed there. He livestreamed his exploit, urging supporters to come to the parliament and prevent the arrest of legislators. Despite the troop blockades, enough legislators managed to make it to the parliament and vote to end martial law. The assembly went on to impeach Yoon on December 14. 'This election would not have happened if not for the declaration of martial law by Yoon Suk-yeol and his impeachment,' said Youngshik Bong, research fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. 'These issues have sucked in all others like a vortex. Everything else is marginal.' 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The PPP's Kim has accepted Lee's proposals for a constitutional amendment to allow a two-term presidency, but has suggested shortening each term to three martial law bid, however, has left the PPP in crisis and disarray. Infighting plagued the embattled party as it tried to choose the impeached president's successor. Although Kim won the party primary, its leaders tried to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. On the eve of the party's campaign launch, they cancelled Kim's candidacy, only to reinstate him after party members opposed the move. Bong, at Yonsei University, said the infighting as well as divisions in the conservative camp over Yoon's decree has cost it support. 'Kim Moon-soo has not set his position clearly on the martial law declaration,' Bong said. 'He has not distanced himself from the legacy of Yoon, but at the same time, he has not made it clear whether he believes the declaration of martial law was a violation of the constitution. So the PPP has not really had enough energy to mobilise its support bases.' Still, Kim appears to have eroded what was a more than 20 percent point gap with Lee at the start of the campaign. But he has failed to convince the third placed contender – Lee Jun-seok – to abandon his bid and back the PPP to improve its chances. The New Reform Party's Lee, who is 40 years old, said on Tuesday there would be 'no candidate merger' with 'those responsible for the emergency martial law'. Although policy debates have taken a backseat, the outcome of the election could reorient South Korea's approach towards North Korea. The two neighbours are technically in a state of war as the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and ties between them are at a new low. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for rewriting his country's constitution to scrap the longstanding goal of unifying the war-divided nations and described Seoul as an 'invariable principal enemy'. Pyongyang has also severed communication lines, and the two countries have clashed over balloons and drones carrying rubbish and propaganda. Lee of the Democratic Party has promised to ease tensions if elected, including by restoring a military hotline, and committed to maintaining the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Kim, however, has backed Yoon's hardline approach, promising to secure 'pre-emptive deterrence' through tools such as ballistic missiles and the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons. He has said he would also seek a path for the country to pursue nuclear armament by securing the right to reprocess nuclear fuel, a key step towards building atomic weapons. The two candidates also differ in their approach to the US, the country's most important security ally, and to China, its biggest trading partner. Lee, who espouses what he calls a pragmatic foreign policy, has said it is crucial to maintain South Korea's alliance with the US and pursue security cooperation with Japan. However, he has pledged to prioritise 'national interests' and said there's 'no need to unnecessarily antagonise China or Russia'.Kim, meanwhile, has questioned Lee's commitment to the US-South Korea alliance, and has promised to hold an immediate summit meeting with US President Donald Trump if elected to discuss tariffs. 'I have a very friendly and trusting relationship,' with the US leader, Kim has said. He has also indicated a willingness to discuss sharing more of the cost of stationing US troops in the country, something Trump has demanded for years. Lee Sung-yoon, board member of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, described the policy differences between the rival camps as 'immutable' and referred to earlier comments by the Democratic Party's Lee, because of which some view him as being soft on China and Russia. 'In the past, Lee has said South Korea should not get involved in China's posture towards Taiwan, and just say thank you to both Beijing and Taiwan and stay out of the conflict. He has said of the trilateral defensive drills among US, Japan and South Korea as 'a defence disaster' and an 'extremely pro-Japanese act'. And more than once he has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy incited Russia to invade because he was a political novice who said unfortunate things.' The analyst said Lee has – over the course of the election campaign – tried to walk back some of his statements in a bid to appeal to more moderate voters. However, 'I would venture to guess that people sitting in the councils of power in Washington, DC, or Tokyo or in Kyiv, Ukraine, are not overly jubilant at the prospect of a Lee administration,' he said. Koreans overseas have already cast their ballots, and early voting took place on Thursday and Friday. Large numbers of people turned out for the early vote, including the two frontrunners. According to the National Election Commission, some 44.4 million people in the country of 52 million are eligible to vote. On election day, which is a public holiday, polling stations will open at 6am (22:00 GMT) and close at 8pm (20:00 GMT). Counting will begin immediately and the winner will be known that evening or in the early hours of the following day. The candidate who receives the most votes will be deemed the winner, even if they don't win 50 percent of the votes.
