Rogue Bankers Don't Explain Goldman's 1MDB Mess
The Wall Street bank’s internal checks weren’t robust enough to stop its involvement with the scandal-plagued investment fund.
Papering over the problems.
Photographer: Nadirah Zakariya/BloombergWhether or not you believe that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. deserved those high fees for its work with a scandal-ridden Malaysian investment fund, or that rogue bankers got it in this hot mess, one thing’s for sure: The bank’s internal checks just weren’t good enough.
The sheer amount of fees should have been the first red flag: $600 million for underwriting $6.5 billion in bond sales between 2012 and 2013 for 1MDB. Let’s put that in perspective. The amount Goldman raked in from the investment fund alone is nearly equivalent to the $694 million in revenue from its entire global bond underwriting business in the first quarter of 2013.