The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced that it is permanently barring Andrea Vella, a senior executive at Goldman Sachs, from the banking industry for his role in Goldman's financing of a defrauded Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
Goldman arranged bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia's state-owned development and investment company. The consent order states that Vella failed to escalate Low Taek Jho's involvement in the bond offerings. Low was a person of known concern to Goldman, and his involvement indicated heightened potential underwriting risks.
Low and two former Goldman employees, Tim Leissner and Roger Ng, have been criminally charged by the Department of Justice for participating in a scheme to divert proceeds of the bond offerings from 1MDB for their personal benefit and bribing certain government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
In March 2019, the Board permanently prohibited Leissner from banking and fined him $1.42 million for his role in the scheme to divert bond proceeds. Ng is currently prohibited from banking by the Board.
