Search results

In 2015, Malaysia’s investment vehicle, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), came under international scrutiny after it amassed a debt of US$11 billion (10.3 billion) (Wright & Clark, 2015), which it had difficulty repaying. More disturbingly, investigators found that US$700 million (658 million) was transferred into the personal bank account of Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib Razak, founder and chairman of 1MDB’s advisory board (Wright & Clark, 2015). Najib was also accused of embezzling state money (Reuters, 2015) and damaging the image of the country (“Najib tried to bribe me”, 2015). This chapter aims to examine the strategies used by the Malaysian prime minister to repair his image in the 1MDB scandal, the effectiveness of these strategies, and how these impacted Malaysia’s public diplomacy efforts in restoring the country’s image and reputation. Findings showed that the prime minister denied wrongdoing, and simultaneously bolstered his position and promised to turn 1MDB around. In contrast to the current explication of Benoit and Pang’s (2008) image repair strategies, Najib’s way of attacking the accusers sheds light into how image repair strategies may be operationalized in the Asian context. A new image repair strategy – diversion – is proposed to be added to the existing framework.

The aim of the paper is to analyse the prevalence of corruption in Malaysia since 2004 in relation to political leadership, implementation of anti-corruption measures and the political and business culture based on money politics.

The paper draws from the information and data provided by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Malaysian government, international organisations, media reports, and academic papers.

The paper analyses the perceived extent of corruption in Malaysia by examining how successive governments have dealt with the problem through a wide range of measures. Corruption remains widespread because of ineffective implementation, a culture of money politics based on mutually beneficial crony associations between political actors and business leaders, political interference to frustrate enforcement against corruption offenders, especially prominent personalities, and the mixed impact of corruption prevention measures. The paper concludes that the political and business culture and the nature of political leadership have eroded the political will to combat grand corruption in Malaysia.

This paper builds on previous research on corruption in Malaysia and highlights the combined negative impact of political leadership and a business and political culture that tolerates and espouses corruption, especially through money politics, and the consequent weak political will for tackling grand corruption.

This study seeks to find an interactive effect between ethical leadership (EL) and corporate governance (CG) variables and investigate whether they would affect employee organizational citizenship behavior (EOCB) in a Malaysian organizational setting. The collected data from the 300 accounting/finance department employees were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM; SmartPLS 3.0). Several primary results confirmed a coherent significant relationship between EL and ethical climate (EC), EL and EOCB, EL and CG, and CG and organizational success. Theoretically, it implies a more enhanced EOCB literature on how it can be infused in an organization. It also offers valuable knowledge by providing organizations with several insights concerning the improvement of EOCB, enabling the organization to achieve its desired success and, more importantly, how the findings could contribute directly and indirectly to emerging markets in terms of their industrial and financial performance.

The aim of the paper is to examine the various aspects of the 1MDB scandal including the extent and types of corruption that occurred and the action taken to deal with them. In doing this, the paper seeks to identify the reasons for the scandal and the lessons that can be learnt to avoid such a scandal in Malaysia and elsewhere in the future.

The research for the paper is based on evidence from court hearings, reports of watchdog and regulatory agencies, media reports, and various articles and books written about 1MDB.

The paper shows that most of the scandal involved embezzlement, bribery, false declarations and bond mispricing relating to extensive borrowing by 1MDB, and entailed a global network of shell companies and individuals through which the illicit money was passed. It also shows weak governance in 1MDB, poor internal controls within banks, the failure of watchdog and enforcement bodies to take the necessary action partly due to political control over them, and overall the lack of political will to deal with the scandal.

The paper builds on the findings of other papers and books written on the 1MDB scandal. It does this by linking the corruption to the borrowings of 1MDB, the international network of money-laundering and bribery through which illicit money flowed, and the poor internal controls in the organisation. It also builds on previous research by highlighting the failure of banks to identify money-laundering and of watchdog and enforcement bodies to deal with the corruption. A further value of the paper is to identify the lessons that can be learnt about combatting corruption on such a scale.

This case study highlights why and how the Swiss banking sector played a crucial role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal. In particular, the paper illustrates how different actors in the Swiss financial sector neglected compliance guidelines and due diligence, thus effectively facilitating the laundering of misappropriated 1MDB funds. The purpose of this paper is to give bankers and compliance officers an overview of the methods money launderers use to circumvent compliance measures so that the Swiss banking sector can be protected more effectively from abuse. In addition, there is discussion whether current regulations, including banking secrecy, should be amended.

This paper used a content analysis methodological approach to collect data from media sources. Qualitative methods were used to analyze these sources.

The findings reveal that the Swiss banking sector played a major role in facilitating the siphoning and subsequent laundering of 1MDB funds by neglecting due diligence obligations.

This paper advocates a more consequential implementation of the existing anti-money laundering and corruption regulations.

A reworking of the 1MDB scandal should be of interest to compliance professionals in the banking sector and citizens that have been negatively affected or are concerned by the involved high-level corruption.

This paper is the first of its kind to study the role of the Swiss banking sector in the 1MDB scandal.

In December 2013, the World Bank had declared that, in the developing world, corruption is the No.1 public enemy. True, Malaysia has been swayed by the endless corruption scandals from the upper classes to the subordinates, in public as well as private sectors. As a country that is moving towards being a developed country in 2025, the Malaysian Government has been working hard to overcome corruption through various plans and initiatives. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to highlight on Malaysia’s current initiatives and factors that had been found to be of significant importance by previous studies for combating corruption in Malaysia.

This study employed structured review process as well as critically examined the contents to ensure that the data are filtered from high-quality peer-reviewed journals. Twenty-five quality papers were selected from top journals of various areas to produce the list.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive list of factors in Malaysia in the fight against corruption.

This study will be beneficial to academics, policymakers and anti-corruption professionals interested in Malaysia’s anti-corruption experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and evaluate how the governments in six Asian countries have dealt with selected grand corruption scandals.

This paper is based on the comparative analysis of 11 corruption scandals examined in the six articles on India, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore included in this special issue of Public Administration and Policy.

The responses of the governments in the six countries depend on the strength of their political will in combating corruption. The responses of the governments in Malaysia, Philippines, India and Japan reflect their weak political will in combating corruption and lack of accountability of the corrupt offenders. By contrast, the strong political will of the governments in Singapore and Macau is reflected in the investigation and punishment of the corrupt offenders without any cover-up of the scandals.

The findings would be of interest to scholars, policymakers and anti-corruption practitioners and activists.

In light of the recent 1MDB Scandal in Singapore, this research paper aims to examine the deterrent effect of Singapore’s sanctions against money laundering within financial institutions.

Case laws and legislations are examined as are relevant reports by regulators.

Singapore’s anti-money laundering (AML) regimes may not act as an effective deterrent against money laundering activities within financial institutions. This is due to the overreliance on the theory of deterrence-based thinking, the lack of an “enforcement pyramid” and economic factors which influence regulators to be lenient towards financial institutions.

There are limited data available in relation to regulators in Singapore and the prevalence of money laundering activities within Singapore’s financial institution. Any discussions within this article is based on the impressionistic observations of this author, which may not reflect the true state of affairs in Singapore.

Those who are interested in examining the relationship between money laundering and the deterrent effect of sanctions against financial institutions will have an interest in this topic.

The value of the paper is to demonstrate that Singapore’s AML regimes may not act as an effective deterrence against money laundering activities within financial institutions.