GOLDMAN SACHS (ASIA) L.L.C. 高盛(亞洲)有限責任公司

Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte will pay US$122m to the Singapore Government and disgorge US$61m to the Malaysian authorities, representing its share of fees from the 1MDB bond offerings.

The record fine, which goes to the HK Government, is about HK$364 for every person in HK. The SDA reveals that GS earned an average 9% on the bond issues, way above market rates, and nobody at GS seemed to think that was suspicious. Makes us wonder who was running the compliance department - but such persons are not SFC-licensed, so beyond the SFC's reach. The settlement doesn't suspend GS from carrying on its business in HK.

The "New York-headquartered financial institution" is obviously Goldman Sachs.

Tim Leissner is banned for 10 years.

Webb-site reveals that investors who took 31% of a bank IPO had secretly laid off their risk by issuing derivatives to a mainland property developer from the same city, via two HK-listed companies which incidentally are bubble stocks. When we complained, HKEX did not require disclosure of the bank’s identity, thereby preserving the secrecy behind the cornerstone investors which facilitate HKEX’s IPO business. Once again, the regulatory conflict of interest is exposed.

We look behind last night's shock placing by Ping An Insurance to tycoon Cheng Yu Tung, and call for a full explanation from the issuer.

China Vanguard (8156) bought an asset from its controlling shareholder at 6.5 times the price at which China Motion (0989) turned it down. Now it is struggling to redeem convertible bonds the target issued to Goldman Sachs and Evolution Capital. We also query a year-end HK$139m cash outflow to buy a company which was once owned by the controlling shareholder, with negative net assets. Finally we look at a pending acquisition by Aptus, its subsidiary.

Note: media, quoting sources, have identified the client as Joyce Tsang Yue, former chairman of Modern Beauty Salon Holdings Ltd (0919).