He was banned after he failed to cooperate with a regulatory investigation.

A former Goldman Sachs director allegedly linked to a scandal at a Malaysian state-owned fund was exiled from the US securities industry, seven months after Singapore slapped him with a 10-year ban.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) issued its ban on Tim Leissner effective 11 September, after he failed to respond to requests for documents and other information originating from his departure from the Wall Street giant early last year. 

“Without admitting or denying the findings, Mr Leissner consented to the sanction and to the entry of findings,” the regulator wrote in Leissner’s file, noting that he failed to provide Finra with certain requested documents and information during the course of an investigation into a reference letter that led to his departure from Goldman Sachs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The US regulator's move to permanently bar Leissner follows a decision in March by Singapore's central bank and regulator to ban him from carrying out activities regulated by the city-state's Securities and Futures Act for 10 years.

In March 2016, Goldman Sachs suspended Leissner after it discovered he had written an unauthorised letter vouching for Low Taek Jho, more commonly known as Jho Low, the notorious Malaysian financier at the epicentre of international probes investigating the alleged looting of billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Berhad. The fund, known as 1MDB, is the subject of investigations in at least six countries including the US, Singapore and Switzerland, but has consistently denied wrongdoing.

Goldman Sachs had raised $6.5 billion for the fund and earned nearly $600 million in fees for doing so, meaning 1MDB was one of its most lucrative clients at the time. 

The US Department of Justice is examining whether Goldman Sachs had reason to suspect that money it helped the fund raise was misappropriated and, if so, whether the bank should have reported concerns to the relevant authorities. 

Leissner was central to Goldman Sachs' dealings with 1MDB when he worked as a senior investment banker and chairman of the firm's Southeast Asia office.

In June 2015, he allegedly wrote to Banque Havilland, a Luxembourg private bank, vouching for Low, who sought to open an account there. The Monetary Authority of Singapore confirmed he had written the latter on behalf of Goldman Sachs' Asia unit without its knowledge, but did not address the Luxembourg firm by name.