KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 24 — Tim Leissner will attempt to take down as many “senior people” as possible out of bitterness at being portrayed as a “rogue banker”, a report has claimed.
The Financial Times quoted a former partner of the now-disgraced Goldman Sachs banker as saying that Leissner is bitter because he is taking the sole blame for the 1MDB scandal while Goldman Sachs appears to have got off scot-free.
Until news of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial saga broke, and until Pakatan Harapan (PH) assumed the mantle in Putrajaya, Leissner had been basking in the glory of being one of his bank’s top-performing employees, with an annual paycheck ranging between US$5 million and US$7 million annually, at the height of his career there.
But things took a tumble, especially after he was linked to 1MDB and fugitive financier Jho Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, a fact made worse, after Leissner’s own admission that concealing information from the bank’s compliance officers was “very much in line” with Goldman Sachs’ business culture.
“One former partner says he believes Mr Leissner “will [try to] take down as many senior people as he can” because he is embittered at being portrayed as a “rogue banker” when Goldman’s extensive procedures and compliance committees signed off on the transactions,” FT reported, citing the unnamed source.
The report said that while the bank’s former chief executive Lloyd Blankfein did not address the 1MDB saga with the bank’s partners at Goldman Sachs 150th anniversary in Manhattan, his successor David Solomon did, reportedly acknowledging the damage Leissner is capable of inflicting upon the banking titan.
“He told former partners who had seen almost 34 per cent wiped off the value of their shares this year that one person ‘who was intent upon it’ could do a lot of damage.
“We will learn from this experience,” FT quoted Solomon as saying.
Prior to the 1MDB saga, Leissner enjoyed a meteoric rise at Goldman Sachs. He was made a regional managing director in 2002.
According to the report, four years later, Leissner joined the bank’s elite group of about 500 partners, which came with one of the highest pay packages.
“If you get promoted that fast, as a participating partner, the pressure is very high... you need to keep performing at that level,” FT quoted an unnamed person familiar with the developments at Goldman Sachs as saying.
Leissner reportedly worked through difficult financial periods, raking in massive profits for his employer, at a time when others found it immensely hard to do so.
These skills allegedly earned the German national a “certain amount of latitude” in his dealings, and possibly allowed less scrutiny of his 1MDB dealings.
“Post-financial crisis, most of the guys that were considered rainmakers... didn’t really exist anymore.
“They didn’t have the deep set of client relationships to really make things happen like Tim did.”
However, two of Leissner’s former managers denied the claim, insisting that the former faced the same issues to see his deals through as any of his colleagues.
Putrajaya had last week put an amount — US$7.5 billion (RM31.25 billion) — to the compensation it is seeking from Goldman Sachs for its blunder over 1MDB.
Goldman Sachs is also under investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ).
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told FT that the government is looking for reparation beyond the sum of its losses in the “excessive” US$600 million fees paid to Goldman Sachs and three bonds arranged by the bank.
“The bond offerings were always controversial, due to the high amount Goldman earned from the fundraising and the fact that it acted as a sole bookrunner on such a large deal.
“The long-term damage to Goldman’s franchise is hard to quantify. Executives say that so far it has been limited to Singapore and Malaysia. But the head of a rival investment bank argues that Goldman ‘won’t be as aggressive and as cute as it used to be... it will lose its edge’,” FT reported.
