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Former Goldman Chief Had Secret Meeting With Fugitive Figure

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Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein appears to have been at the same meeting as fugitive Jho Low, even though Goldman Sachs expressed concerns about the Malaysian financier, according to media reports.

The 2013 meeting took place in the Mandarin Oriental in New York, where Blankfein and over a dozen other bankers and people from the government converged to get down to business about a $6 billion bond deal, the Wall Street Journal reports. Low was present and included in the activities.

Low is probably best known for his association to one of the most notorious corruption scandals. The Justice Department got him indicted on charges of stealing billions of dollars from 1Malaysia Development Bhd., which is the investment fund Malaysia uses.

In 2009, Blankfein and Low had an introductory meeting at which they discussed 1MDB, according to a report. Goldman’s compliance department expressed worries regarding where Low was getting money and what exactly he was doing with 1MDB, the report said. Authorities don’t know where Low is right now, according to The New York Post, and he may have bribed officials.

Tim Leissner pleaded guilty earlier this month for his role in the bribery and money-laundering scandal, and paid $43.7 million. He has not been sentenced.

The revelation about the meeting makes what Goldman Sachs’ former Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner said during his guilty plea a few weeks ago even more interesting.

“I and several other employees of Goldman Sachs at the time also concealed that we knew that Jho Low was promising and paying bribes and kickbacks to foreign officials to obtain and retain 1MDB business for Goldman Sachs,” he said.

Michael DuVally, a Goldman spokesman, did not comment.

The Jewish Voice has reported on Blankfein’s time as CEO of Goldman Sachs and on his personal real estate properties. The Voice recently covered Blankfein stepping down from his longtime position of 12 years, after leading his bank through the 2008 financial crisis.

The long-time man at the top will stay on as the bank’s chairman until the end of the year before transitioning to a “senior chairman” role that is called upon when needed, according to an internal memo obtained by The New York Post.

“Today, I don’t want to retire from Goldman Sachs, but by my own perhaps convoluted logic, it feels like the right time,” he wrote in a note to the bank’s employees.

The 63-year-old Blankfein was replaced by former president and chief operating officer, David Solomon. The move had been expected.

“David is the right person to lead Goldman Sachs,” Blankfein said in a statement.

The Bronx-born Blankfein, who once sold hot dogs at Yankee Stadium as a boy, rose to CEO at the end of 2006 after first turning down a job at Goldman to work as a commodities trader at a rival firm, J. Aron & Co, The New York Post reports.

By: Carl Haglund

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