Aurelia Butler

(Reuters) – Roger Ng, the former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) banker convicted for helping to embezzle Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, appealed to a New York court on Saturday not to force him to spend more time in prison.In anticipation of his sentencing hearing scheduled for March 9, Ng’s lawyers asked the court to show mercy and to sentence him to the prison time he has already served in Malaysia. Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, spent six months in a Malaysian prison before he was picked up by the U.S. authorities on Nov. 1, 2018, according to the court filing.In October 2020, Goldman agreed to pay $2.9 billion and its Malaysian unit pleaded guilty to a corruption charge, to settle probes into the looting of billions of dollars from 1MDB and payment of bribes to win business for the Wall Street bank.A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Ng in April last year of conspiring to violate an anti-bribery law and commit money laundering. Ng faces up to 30 years in prison. “Stripped of his dignity in a Malaysian prison, he has been made to be sick, afraid, alone and hopeless, and still suffers the debilitating effects of PTSD,” the lawyers said while they asked the judge to allow him to return to Malaysia, where he is still subject to criminal charges related to the massive theft of Malaysian funds. Reuters was not immediately able reach Malaysian prison officials to comment on the conditions.Prosecutors said that he helped his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from the fund, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman.”Ng’s role in the offense was minimal, and the only claim to the contrary was provided by Tim Leissner, who was patently incredible,” the defense said in the court filing. More

BENGALURU (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that she believes the strong qualifications of the U.S. nominee to lead the World Bank, ex-Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, will overcome any criticism of the selection process.In an interview, Yellen affirmed her support for the longstanding tradition of the United States choosing the World Bank’s leader and Europe choosing the head of the International Monetary Fund.But she said that privilege comes with a responsibility to “nominate the strongest possible candidate” for the job. “We’ve taken this very seriously and tried to identify a candidate that we think brings the right skill set to this job,” Yellen said. “And we hope that our candidate will be broadly accepted in both lending countries and borrowing countries.”Yellen said she was pleased so far with positive reviews from G20 finance officials for Banga, 63, an Indian-born U.S. citizen who has won accolades for his work transforming Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and working to lift people in developing countries out of poverty.But the swiftness with which President Joe Biden nominated Banga, in a surprise pick immediately after the World Bank’s board began accepting nominations on Thursday, drew criticism from some non-profit groups, climate and development professionals that the United States never wanted an open contest for the job and sought quickly to deter challengers.As the World Bank’s largest shareholder with 16.35% of its voting power, the United States wields strong influence over the bank’s policies, and the lender’s president works closely with the Treasury Department.”So much for a merit-based transparent process with female candidates strongly encouraged,” said Claire Healy, Washington director for the E3G climate think tank, referring to the board’s selection process announcement.”Time is short and the stakes are high, so concerns about the process will likely be set aside to get the reforms done,” Healy added.Yellen is pressing the World Bank to refine a package of sweeping reforms aimed at vastly expanding its lending resource and mission to tackle climate change and other global challenges.Banga will face a tough slate of issues around the institution’s finances and capital structure from the start — thorny problems he must address as he reshapes the bank into a force for combating climate change on top of its traditional role as a poverty fighter.”There’s broad agreement that we need to mobilize private capital,” Yellen said. “This is an individual who has a better chance of being able to accomplish that than anyone else I can honestly think of.”She added that his background “really is quite different” from past World Bank presidents, who were often picked from positions in government service.”This is somebody who grew up in emerging markets, spent most of his career working in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, really deeply understands and has lived in countries that face development challenges,” she said. More

A gathering of G20 finance ministers in Bengaluru has ended in discord after Russia and China refused to endorse a statement condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and rejecting the use of nuclear weapons.The meeting broke up on Saturday without agreement on a joint communique from members’ finance ministers and central bank governors. Instead India, which holds the G20 presidency, issued a “chair’s summary and outcome document”. It was backed by delegates from 17 of the group’s 20 members, which include the world’s largest advanced and developing economies; Russia and China did not endorse it.The document reiterated the position taken by G20 leaders at a summit last year in Bali, when they deplored “in the strongest terms” Russia’s war on Ukraine and demanded Russia’s “complete and unconditional” withdrawal from Ukrainian territory.The document also repeated the Bali summit’s declaration that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible”. Ajay Seth of India’s finance ministry said Russian and Chinese delegates, who did not attend the Bengaluru meeting in person, had argued that the war and its consequences were beyond the mandate of finance ministers and central bank governors. Other members “felt that the war has implications for the global economy, so it was right to have those paragraphs”, he said.The disagreement over the communique highlights tensions within the G20 over its members’ positions on the war.The summary document said that “most” members other than Russia and China strongly condemned the war in Ukraine, which it said is causing “immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy”.

Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister, refused to say whether India was among the members that condemned the war. On Thursday, India abstained in a UN General Assembly vote condemning the war, along with China. Russia voted against the UN resolution.Sitharaman said that India had signed up to the G20 leaders’ declaration in Bali, from which the language of Saturday’s summary document was taken.German finance minister Christian Lindner said the failure to reach agreement on the communique was “regrettable”. “But for me it was more important that all the others adhered to a clear position of international law, multilateralism and the end of the war,” Lindner said.“It’s becoming difficult for the G20 to engage in constructive discussion because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is an act that shakes the foundations of the global order,” Japanese finance minister Shunichi Suzuki told reporters in remarks reported by Reuters.Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, had said on Friday that France would refuse to sign any communique that involved stepping back from the Bali declaration. Additional reporting by Reuters More

Japan’s core consumer inflation hit a fresh 41-year high of 4.2% in January, data showed on Friday, keeping the central bank under pressure to phase out its massive stimulus programme.”The rise in consumer inflation is driven mostly by moves by companies to pass on rising raw material costs to households,” Kuroda told a news conference after attending the G20 finance leaders’ gathering in Bengaluru, India.The BOJ expects core consumer inflation to slow below 2% in both fiscal 2023 and 2024, as the effect of past rises in raw material costs fades, he said.”It’s true Japan’s situation is quite different from that of the United States and advanced European countries. The BOJ must maintain current ultra-loose policy to sustainably and stably achieve its 2% target,” Kuroda said. More

LONDON (Reuters) – Argentina’s government is in final talks with International Monetary Fund officials to ease foreign exchange reserves targets for 2023 under the country’s $44 billion program, two sources close to the matter told Reuters.The move comes as the South American commodities exporter is facing the worst drought in 60 years, which has pummeled soy, corn and wheat crops, compromising already weak foreign exchange reserves. Discussions include the impact of the drought on 2023 goals for net reserves, said an Argentina economy ministry adviser who asked not to be named because the talks were ongoing.Talks are now focused on agreeing on exact figures, said one of the sources. An Argentine government source, who asked not to be named because discussions are private, said talks are ongoing but nothing is defined yet.Officials for the Economy Ministry declined to comment. A spokesperson for the IMF declined to comment as the technical work is still ongoing. A group of representatives from Argentina’s central bank and Economy Ministry arrived in Washington this week for the fourth review of the extended fund facility program approved in March 2022, after a failed bailout four years earlier.  Meanwhile, Economy Minister Sergio Massa met with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meetings in Bengaluru, India.The discussions to change the central bank net reserves targets for this year are pre-emptive, as the country did meet its end-December 2022 net reserves targets, another source added. The world’s top exporter of soy oil and meal is also facing a rise in import costs of energy and fertilizers due to the war in Ukraine, adding pressure to much-needed dollar reserves. Net reserves today stand at around $4.4 billion, according to calculations from Buenos Aires-based brokerage firm PPI Inversiones.Under the latest review, Argentina had been set the target of net reserves to increase by $5.5 billion at the end of March and $9.8 billion at the end of the year.  More