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.
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.
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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.
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A U.S. jury began deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of a former Goldman Sachs banker accused of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, Reuters reported. Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman's former top investment banker for Malaysia, helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from 1MDB, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. The Malaysian fund had been founded to pursue development projects in the Southeast Asian country. Ng has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launder money and violating an anti-corruption law.
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A former Goldman Sachs banker should be convicted of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund and causing "immeasurable" harm, a U.S. prosecutor told jurors in her closing argument on Monday, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former top investment banker for Malaysia, faces charges he helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from the fund, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. Assistant U.S.
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Najib Razak has urged the government to protect Sapura Energy Bhd from bankruptcy by providing loans or instructing Petronas or Khazanah Nasional to take over ownership from Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), Free Malaysia Today reported. The former prime minister was critical of PNB for failing to take action during the tenure of the previous Perikatan Nasional administration on Sapura’s problems and for stopping cash flow assistance. “PNB and the government need to think about the country’s strategic interests.
The long-haul subsidiary of Malaysian tycoons Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun’s Capital A has completed its debt restructuring, paving the way for the airline to reverse 33 billion ringgit ($7.9 billion) in provisions previously set aside for these liabilities, Forbes reported. “This is another significant step in rebuilding AirAsia X, post pandemic,” AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said in a statement on Wednesday.
Malaysia’s Airasia X said on Wednesday it had completed its debt restructuring and will write 33 billion ringgit ($7.86 billion) back to profits in the next quarter, Reuters reported. Under the airline’s restructuring proposal, it would pay just 0.5% of debt owed and end its existing contracts. It was approved by its creditors and the High Court of Malaya last year. The restructuring was proposed to avoid liquidation after the long-haul low-cost airline posted a record quarterly loss last September.