Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said his government will work to gradually lower the nation’s debt and narrow the budget gap, without resorting to raising taxes that hurt the poor, Bloomberg News reported. “We have reached the ceiling and we should gradually go down,” Anwar told Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin in an interview Monday in Singapore. Otherwise it would be irresponsible to the next generation, he said.
Read more
Malaysia
Roger Ng, the former Goldman Sachs banker convicted for helping loot Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, on Friday sued the government's star witness Tim Leissner for more than $130 million, alleging fraud, Reuters reported. In a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Ng accused his former boss of repeatedly lying in order to steal his investments in energy drink maker Celsius Holdings and artificial intelligence company Sentient Technologies.
Malaysia’s Finance Minister Zafrul Aziz is confident the economy will expand faster than expected in the current year, supported by strong private consumption amid risks from a global slowdown, Bloomberg News reported. The economy, which expanded 8.9% in the second quarter, will likely see the momentum continue in the third quarter, he said at a Standard Chartered Bloomberg Live forum in Singapore. The central bank estimated full-year growth to be at the upper end of its 5.3%-6.3% forecast. New estimates on growth will likely be announced during the annual budget next month, Zafrul said.
Read more
A unit of Malaysia’s state-owned investment fund 1MDB -- which has spurred investigations around the world into deal-making and political patronage under former Prime Minister Najib Razak -- is seeking bankruptcy protection in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Brazen Sky Ltd., which is fully owned by 1Malaysia Development Bhd., filed for chapter 15 in Southern District of Florida court, according to a filing. The document listed voluntary liquidation pending in the British Virgin Islands, where Brazen Sky is incorporated.
Read more
Former Prime Minister Najib Razak was taken to prison after Malaysia’s top court dismissed his final appeal of corruption convictions, capping a yearslong quest by authorities to prosecute him for his role in one of the world’s largest financial scandals, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ruling by Malaysia’s Federal Court on Tuesday upheld Mr. Najib’s guilty verdicts on seven charges including abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.
Read more
Malaysia's top court on Tuesday denied a request by former Prime Minister Najib Razak to introduce new evidence in his final appeal against a 12-year jail sentence for a case linked to the multibillion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal, Reuters reported. Najib faces dozens of charges over the alleged theft of $4.5 billion from 1MDB, a state fund he co-founded as premier in 2009, in a wide-ranging scandal that has ensnared high-ranking officials and financial institutions stretching from Hollywood to the Middle East.
Read more
Malaysia’s economy is far stronger than Sri Lanka’s if the two countries’ economic indicators are being compared and the possibility for this country to go bankrupt like Sri Lanka is remote, Minister of Finance Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said, Malaymail reported. He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has never stated that Malaysia is experiencing economic problems that have resulted in the country going bankrupt; instead, the international body is confident in Malaysia’s economic growth prospects.
Green Packet founder and former managing director Puan Chan Cheong, better known as CC Puan, has been issued bankruptcy notices by the High Court in May this year in relation to his failure to settle a RM30.66 million sum, The Edge reported. According to court documents seen by The Edge, the bankruptcy notices were filed by Medinis Sdn Bhd (MSB) and Everegion Sdn Bhd (ESB), respectively, after Puan had failed to pay a combined sum of RM30.66 million to the two companies in relation to the High Court’s judgment in relation to three put option agreements.
Malaysian companies from palm oil plantations to semiconductor makers are refusing orders and forgoing billions in sales, hampered by a shortage of more than a million workers that threatens the country's economic recovery, Reuters reported. Despite lifting a COVID-19 freeze on recruiting foreign workers in February, Malaysia has not seen a significant return of migrant workers due to slow government approvals and protracted negotiations with Indonesia and Bangladesh over worker protections, say industry groups, companies and diplomats.
Read more
Once conduits for hundreds of millions of dollars looted from 1MDB, a group of offshore entities are being repurposed to try to track down the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund’s stolen money, Bloomberg News reported. Three British Virgin Islands-based companies linked to 1MDB on Tuesday filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy in Florida, utilizing the section of the U.S. code that allows foreign debtors to bring proceedings in the states. Their aim is to recover a portion of the $8.5 billion allegedly stolen from 1MDB, some of which may be in the U.S., the companies said.
Read more