SFC bans Leissner for life

Chris Hamblin

3 July 2019

Leissner was licensed - but is no longer - under the Securities and Futures Ordinance to carry on Type 4 (advising people about securities), Type 6 (advising people about corporate finance) and Type 9 (asset management) regulated activities and was accredited to Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC between 1 April 1998 and 24 February 2016.

In August 2018, Leissner pled guilty to criminal charges pressed against him by the United States Department of Justice for conspiring to launder money and to break the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977.

Leissner admitted, among other things, that between 2009 and 2014 he conspired with others to:

obtain and retain business from 1MDB for Goldman Sachs through the promise and payment of bribes and kickbacks to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi
embezzle funds from 1MDB for himself and others
launder the bribes and kickbacks as well as other embezzled funds from 1MDB; and
knowingly and wilfully circumvent the controls of Goldman Sachs.

The court in the United States decided that Leissner was guilty of these offences (bundled up into two charges) and ordered him to forfeit US$43.7 million (HK$335.43 million) as a result of his crimes.

Leissner was responsible for Goldman Sach’s relationship with 1MDB, including the negotiation and execution of three bond transactions which Goldman Sachs arranged for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013.