AFTER nearly a decade since its exposure, the grievous saga of the now-defunct and disgraced 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) continues to haunt us, its sordid spectacle slipping into the realm of global pop culture.
From bad actors–turned–criminals to bestselling books and real crime documentaries. And if reports are true, a Hollywood biopic is now in the works, detailing 1MDB as a fabulist sting of sovereign kleptocracy that rocked our dignity and sovereignty.
Virtually every conspirator connected to the US$4.5 billion theft of the nation's money — politically–exposed perpetrators, top civil servants and bank executives — has been censured, indicted and convicted, save for one slippery customer: the mastermind himself, Low Taek Jho or Jho Low.
Last we checked, he is comfortably on the lam, holed up in some Far East haven.
In picking up the shattered financial pieces, the major ongoing endeavour of recovering US$3.9 billion from Goldman Sachs, America's systematically crucial but historically controversial Wall Street investment bank, is being impeded.
Goldman's huge killing of US$600 million in fees and bonuses after underwriting US$6.5 billion in bonds for 1MDB has been probed by the United States Treasury Department. Reeling from their government's investigation, the bank had to forfeit its 1MDB earnings, and two former executives were tried and convicted in the US. It also agreed to recompense US$2.5 billion in cash and US$1.4 billion in assets linked to 1MDB bonds after Malaysia ended criminal proceedings against the bank.
However, it is now playing hardball: it was supposed to settle a one-time US$250 million interim payment if Malaysia didn't receive US$500 million in assets and proceeds by August last year.
Goldman also sued Malaysia over this dispute, on whether Malaysia had recovered the US$500 million and whether any interim payment was due.
Although negotiations were ongoing, Goldman filed for arbitration with the London Court of International Arbitration, arguing that it was "necessary if both parties failed to resolve the wrangle".
1MDB task force chairman Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said that Goldman refused to settle the US$1.4 billion in assets despite getting four extensions.
Johari, who was recently appointed the plantation and commodities minister, has now recommended that the country start suing foreign banks that ignored the "Know Your Customer" (KYC) process and had diverted 1MDB funds to other accounts.
1MDB is one bad mojo where even the inscrutable Swiss were involved: the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority conducted enforcement proceedings against seven of its own financial institutions.
That's the point: when Johari revealed that seven to eight international banks were facilitating the KYCs, he was banking that they would go to great lengths to avoid association with 1MDB's notoriety and once sued, may prefer to settle out-of-court on grounds that the amount is "insignificant".
The bedevilled 1MDB book is not about to be closed just yet, and while some funds or assets may prove elusive, this epic pillaging will be Malaysia's morally-defining moment in getting to the bottom of international financial sleaze.
