How Malaysia's 1MDB Scandal Shook the Financial World

Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund, 1MDB, was supposed to attract foreign investment. Instead, it has spurred criminal and regulatory investigations around the world that have cast an unflattering spotlight on financial deal-making, election spending and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak. The figures are mind-boggling: A Malaysian parliamentary committee identified at least $4.2 billion in irregular transactions related to 1MDB. In May, Najib was ousted in a general election as the scandal fueled a voter backlash that ended his party’s 61 years of rule. As the investigations continue, Najib faces trial on corruption and other charges and U.S. prosecutors implicated at least three senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc. bankers in a multiyear criminal enterprise, one of whom admitted bribery. Malaysia has also filed criminal charges against the U.S. bank. read more »

HSBC to pay $30 million to settle bond rigging lawsuit in U.S.

HSBC Holdings Plc has agreed to pay $30 million to settle litigation by investors who accused 11 big banks of rigging the roughly $9 trillion government agency bond market from 2009 to 2015.

The settlement with the British bank was made public late Wednesday night in the federal court in Manhattan, and requires approval by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos.

HSBC is the third bank to settle, after Deutsche Bank AG and Bank of America Corp agreed in August 2017 to pay a respective $48.5 million and $17 million and cooperate with the plaintiffs. read more »

Judge Cites ‘Serious’ Accusations Against McKinsey in Reopening Bankruptcy Case

A judge in Virginia reopened a more than two-year-old case on Wednesday to consider accusations that the powerful consultancy McKinsey & Company had defrauded his court while advising a bankrupt coal company.

“These are some of the most serious allegations that I have ever seen,” said the judge, Kevin R. Huennekens of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in Richmond.

The decision to reopen the bankruptcy case of Alpha Natural Resources was the latest in a series of court actions and legislative maneuvers meant to examine whether McKinsey has failed to disclose investments in the entities it helps reorganize — an arrangement that could allow the company to profit off the plan it helped put in place. The request to reopen came from a retired turnaround specialist, Jay Alix, and was supported by the Justice Department’s Office of the United States Trustee. read more »

Facebook literally can’t be deleted on some phones

Facebook will always be around, at least for some people who own Samsung smartphones.

Some Samsung devices come preloaded with a Facebook app that owners can’t remove; the app can only be disabled.

Facebook told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the disabled version of the app acts as if it has been deleted and does not collect data about a user’s activity or send information to the social network. But that may sound like cold comfort to users who don’t want Facebook on their phones, or to other app developers whose software doesn’t come automatically installed on popular smartphones. read more »

Danske Bank, ex-CEO are sued in U.S. over money laundering scandal

Danske Bank A/S and four former top executives were sued on Wednesday by a U.S. shareholder that accused Denmark’s largest bank of defrauding investors and inflating its share price by hiding and failing to stop widespread money laundering at its Estonian branch. read more »