Malaysia 1MDB Scandal: Goldman Sachs Hired Daughter Of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Close Ally

The daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak’s close ally was employed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. during the time when the investment bank worked for the Malaysian state-run fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing sources. The 1MDB has been the center of scandal since last July, when hundreds of millions of dollars were traced to the personal bank accounts of Razak.

Goldman Sachs is currently carrying out its own investigation after the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice began probing the firm over money laundering and corruption as an adviser to the 1MDB allegations. The company is also looking into the hiring part under its probe, the sources told the Journal.

Tim Leissner, the former chairman of the Southeast Asian division of the global investment firm, was subpoenaed by the U.S. authorities investing the allegations. Leissner worked on several significant deals for the state-run fund, and together netted hundreds of millions of dollars for the investment bank, according to Bloomberg.

Allegations against Najib were first made in a July 2015 report by the Journal, which said that investigators tracked the money from an account at Falcon Private Bank in Singapore to accounts in Malaysia. Najib has consistently denied the allegations.

Singapore has seized several bank accounts in the past couple of months during its investigation into possible embezzlement. Apart from the U.S. and Singapore, investigations into the fund's finances are also reportedly in progress in Malaysia, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi.