The amendment to the Insolvency Act 1967 will allow two more categories of bankrupt individuals to qualify for discharge through the director-general of insolvency's certificate of discharge without going through debtors' objections, Minister in Prime Minister's Department Azalina Othman said, Malaysia Now reported.
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The Malaysian government is re-evaluating a $3.9 billion settlement deal reached between the previous administration and U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs over the 1MDB financial scandal, state news agency Bernama reported on Monday, Reuters reported. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Monday a government taskforce looking into 1MDB issues was scrutinising the 2020 deal with Goldman, adding that it was a matter of recovering public funds, Bernama reported.
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The proposed amendments to the Malaysian Insolvency Act 1967, as announced in the revised 2023 Budget, will be tabled in Parliament next month, the New Straits Times reported. Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the amendments to the Act would improve the administration and management of the country's bankruptcy system.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.