Foreign investigators, particularly those in Singapore and the United States, are zooming in on a 2012 lunch meeting between two Goldman Sachs Group Inc bankers, wanted businessperson Jho Low, a 1MDB official and six executives from a Swiss bank. 

According to a Bloomberg report, former Goldman employees Roger Ng and Tim Leissner were said to have explained a US$1.75 billion bonds offering to the Swiss banking executives during that meeting which took place in a Singapore restaurant. 

Quoting sources familiar with the matter, the report claimed that investigators were looking more closely at the roles of Ng and Leissner.

Authorities wished to determine how US$577 million in proceeds from a bond sale in May 2012 ended up a day later in an account at BSI SA in Switzerland - the same bank the six executives are from.

The lunch, previously unreported, brought together key parties in what has become the biggest financial scandal in Malaysia’s history. 

Penang-born Low, whose real name is Low Taek Jho, is believed to have a played a significant role in the embattled state investment fund 1MDB, which was established by former Malaysian prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Low (photo below) is wanted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for questioning, while an arrest warrant for him was issued by Singapore as far back as 2016.

Even so, efforts to bring him back to Malaysia have so far proven futile and he remains in hiding, believed to be somewhere in mainland China, Hong Kong or in Macau.

T'ganu Investment Authority to 1MDB

The BSI account belonged to a British Virgin Islands entity known as Aabar Investments PJS Ltd. 

US court documents state the account was used to syphon about US$1.4 billion from two 2012 bond sales, including the offering discussed at the lunch, said the report. 

It was previously reported in 2016 that US investigators had been probing if Goldman Sachs had misled bondholders when it sold securities issued by 1MDB.

The bank had helped raise US$6.5 billion in bonds for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013 while raking in US$593 million in commissions.

Leissner (photo below) had been Goldman’s former chairperson for Southeast Asia and lead banker for the three 1MDB bond sales.

He left Goldman in 2016 after he was suspended for allegedly violating the firm's policies and was slapped with a 10-year trading ban in Singapore for improprieties related to the 1MDB transactions.

Meanwhile, the Bloomberg report also quoted sources as saying Malaysian authorities were preparing an arrest warrant for Ng. 

Ng, a well-connected Malaysian banker, joined Goldman in 2005 from Deutsche Bank AG, where he won mandates for several bond deals. 

Upon joining Goldman, Ng introduced the firm to lawmakers in the state of Terengganu, which in 2009 hired Goldman to advise it on the creation of the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), sources have said.

Ng later crossed paths with Low after TIA became 1MDB.

Bloomberg was unable to reach Ng for comment, while a lawyer for Leissner, Marc Harris, declined comment.

Edward Naylor, a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for Goldman Sachs, also declined to comment on the report. A representative for Low didn’t reply to emails.

Malaysiakini has not been able to independently verify the report.

Najib and 1MDB have, throughout the years, denied any wrongdoing.