Goldman Sachs chief executive apologises to Malaysian people over 1MDB scandal

Goldman Sachs chief executive David Solomon has apologised to the Malaysian people for former banker Tim Leissner’s role in the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund scam.

Last year US prosecutors charged two former bankers with the theft of billions of dollars from IMDB and Leissner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and agreed to pay $43.7m (£34m).

Last month Malaysian authorities filed criminal charges against the investment bank in connection with the money laundering and corruption inquiry.

Former Goldman bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng, former 1MDB employee Jasmine Loo and the fugitive financier known as Jho Low were also included in the charges.

Following the bank’s strong fourth quarter results, Solomon apologised to the Malaysian people but insisted the bank conducted due diligence before every transaction.

In a conference call with analysts, Solomon said: “When control functions in the firm asked if each transaction whether intermediaries were involved, they were told no.

“Leissner himself said no intermediaries were involved in the transaction.”

The probe is scrutinising three bond offerings raised by Goldman Sachs and others for 1MDB to a total of $6.5bn, which are now under investigation in at least six countries.

Goldman Sachs said the charges were "misdirected", adding that the bank is cooperating with all investigations. It has denied all wrongdoing.

The US justice department has said that $4.5 billion was misappropriated by high-level officials of the fund and their associates between 2009 and 2014.