There are so many twists and turns on the 1MDB saga that it is worthy of a spy thriller. I bet someone is already writing a book on it and the movie should be out by next year : “The Wolf of Wall Street, Part 2”.
It is amazing that after so long, no one is held accountable for a fiasco that is hurting a country so badly. It stinks to the core. Even as we see new revelations being made public every month, it still does not cease to surprise me. How can it have gone so wrong? By trying to sweep everything under the carpet, the dirt has already formed a huge bump under the surface.
Back in 2012, there were already rumours in the banking circle of a big transaction done by Goldman Sach for a government-linked company that yielded a fat profit margin for the investment bank. Apparently, 1MDB urgently needed to raise the funds quickly and GS was the only one willing to do it. It was also just before election time. The bank extracted its pound of flesh by guaranteeing the success of the bond issuance in advance, but the company had to give a big haircut to GS. Talks in the market then were that the company will be paid 90 cents to the dollar, while GS will sell the bond at par. Effectively, the bank gets a 10 cent spread on top of the fees it will earn. WSJ eventually revealed that GS made up to 16% on the transaction.
Funnily, at that time in 2012, I was also interviewing with GS for a job. The person I was talking to at that time was very closely linked to the senior government officials in that country. I suspect that he was also part of the team that closed the deal. About a year later, he left GS and so did many others.
The circle of investigation is widening every day. More regulators are jumping on the bandwagon to demand answers. Singapore has even closed down a private bank as a result. Everyone involved in 1MDB is still in denial, finger pointing at others being the favourite course of action. Strange things have also happened where people were silenced and push aside to clamp down on the truth. When will this all end? Is there hope for the country? When can we see the movie?
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