It said the meeting took place in December 2012 at the Goldman Sachs headquarters in Lower Manhattan.
Federal prosecutors are now examining the 2012 meeting as they conduct a criminal investigation of the bank, the report said.
“And the existence of a face-to-face meeting between Goldman’s chief executive and the man accused of being at the centre of a sprawling fraud undercuts an argument the bank has made: that its problems stem from the actions of a small number of rogue employees,” the daily said.
Jho Low has been accused of being the mastermind in a multibillion-dollar fraud involving 1MDB.
Goldman’s role in supporting 1MDB has brought intense scrutiny from federal prosecutors, who this month brought criminal charges against two former Goldman investment bankers and implicated a senior executive, NYT reported.
NYT said the meeting between Low and Blankfein shows the expanding scope of a scandal that is rocking Goldman which is said to be facing “significant fines” over the 1MDB issue.
Yesterday, Abu Dhabi’s state energy investment company sued Goldman in the New York State Court, accusing bank employees of bribing Abu Dhabi officials.
NYT said in the three years before the 2012 meeting, the bank’s compliance staff had repeatedly rejected Low’s attempts to become a Goldman client because it was unclear how he had amassed his wealth.
Goldman ultimately helped 1MDB sell more than US$6 billion (RM25 billion) in bonds to investors, earning about US$600 million in fees.
Prosecutors in Malaysia and the United States have accused Jho Low of looting hundreds of millions of dollars from 1MDB for himself and others. However, Jho Low has maintained he is innocent.
The 1MDB bond deals were arranged in large part by Tim Leissner, a senior Goldman banker in Asia. He also facilitated the meeting between Jho Low and Blankfein, according to the three people familiar with the meeting, the report stated.
Leissner pleaded guilty in August to bribery and money-laundering charges in connection with the 1MDB bond deals.
Earlier today, former prime minister Najib Razak claimed the previous government had been cheated by Jho Low.
“Yes it’s true (he cheated us), based on the conclusions we can draw today. This is what happened,” he said in a live interview with Sinar Harian.
Stressing that his relationship with Jho Low was on a purely professional basis, Najib said he only came to know about the businessman’s private lifestyle much later.