Hong Kong fines Goldman Sachs $350m for 1MDB role

Record amount set for lapses in compliance and anti-money laundering controls

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission found that Tim Leissner, then a Hong Kong-based Goldman Sachs executive, was essentially given free rein on 1MDB deals. © AP

NARAYANAN SOMASUNDARAM, Nikkei Asia chief banking and financial correspondent

October 22, 2020 20:59 JST

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's securities regulator has imposed a fine of $350 million, its biggest ever, on Goldman Sachs' Asia unit over the bank's role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd. corruption scandal.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission on Thursday said there were "serious lapses and deficiencies" in risk, compliance and anti-money laundering controls at the U.S. investment bank that contributed to the misappropriation of $2.6 billion from three bond offerings by 1MDB in 2012 and 2013.