Goldman Sachs CEO apologizes to people of Malaysia

Goldman Sachs' new CEO is apologizing for the role of a former banker in Malaysia's multi-billion dollar embezzlement scandal.

"It is very clear that the people of Malaysia were defrauded by many individuals, including the highest members of the prior government," David Solomon said Wednesday on the company's earnings call.

Tim Leissner, the company's former chairman of Southeast Asia, has admitted to being "one of those people," he continued. "For Leissner's role in that fraud, we apologize to the Malaysian people."

Solomon's remarks come amid a crisis for the bank, which faces lawsuits and investigations tied to its job in raising money for Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berha read more »

Goldman Sachs’s Tactic in Malaysian Fraud Case: Smear an Ex-Partner

They sound like the ingredients of a pulpy thriller: Bigamy. Secret religious conversions. A doctorate from a mail-order diploma mill. Affairs with powerful women.

The sordid list — a mixture of facts, accusations and insinuations, packaged in a glossy slide show — represents the crux of a well-orchestrated campaign by Goldman Sachs to discredit one of its former partners and to minimize the Wall Street bank’s role in the looting of a big Malaysian investment fund.

In recent presentations to American regulators and law enforcement authorities, according to people familiar with their contents, Goldman executives and their lawyers have depicted Tim Leissner, a former top investment banker, as a master con man, someone so sneaky that even the retired military intelligence officers who work for the bank couldn’t sniff him out.

The scorched-earth tactics, especially against someone who had been a star banker, reflect just how worried Goldman is about the criminal investigations into its role in the theft of at least $2.7 billion from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, sovereign wealth fund.  read more »

US sues Tetra Tech over Hunters Point shipyard work, claiming widespread fraud

Top managers of the environmental engineering firm Tetra Tech directed their employees to commit widespread fraud in the cleanup of America’s largest Superfund waste site, according to new legal complaints by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The allegations were filed Monday against Tetra Tech EC, a wholly owned subsidiary of parent company Tetra Tech Inc., the $3 billion government contracting giant. read more »