Compliance Corner: Malaysia

Editorial Staff

17 January 2019

Malaysia
A leader with the main Malaysian opposition political party, Umno (United Malays National Organisation) has been arrested by authorities in the Asian country and will be brought to face criminal charges linked to corruption, reports said.

Umno supreme council member Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim was arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission earlier this week, and was due to face charges yesterday, according to the Straits Times (of Singapore).

Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez, who is also the Baling MP, is expected to face charges of money laundering at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court, the publication said.

Abdul Azeez, who was the chairman of Malaysia's Muslim pilgrimage savings fund Tabung Haji (TH) until his resignation on 14 May last year after Pakatan Harapan won the general election, was previously arrested by the MACC in September and remanded for a total of 10 days.

The arrest appears unrelated to the drama around Malaysia’s 1MDB state-established fund, from which it is alleged billions of dollars were siphoned off, creating an international corruption scandal.

Goldman Sachs
A senior Malaysian official reportedly attacked Goldman Sachs for its alleged role in the 1MDB scandal, doubting the firm's claim that the blame lies with a few rogue employees.

"We have suffered extremely large losses, and you were the financial adviser," Lim Guan Eng, the finance minister of Malaysia, was quoted by Business Insider as saying, referring to Goldman Sachs in an interview with the New York Times on Monday this week.

To see other stories about the 1MDB case, see examples here and here.