1MDB: Ex-Goldman Sachs banker found guilty for role in world’s biggest financial scandal
Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng faces up to 30 years in prison after being found guilty on two separate counts of bribery and money laundering for his role in the multi-billion-dollar 1MBD scandal.
A New York jury convicted Ng on two separate charges of conspiracy, after finding the banker guilty of taking part in a scheme – masterminded by international fugitive Jho Low – to bribe officials and embezzle billions from Malaysia’s state-backed development fund.
The 49-year-old banker now faces up to 30 years in a US prison for his role in the 1MDB scandal after jurors heard nine days of testimony from Ng’s former Goldman Sachs colleague Tim Leissner, who claimed he paid Ng $35m for his role in the scheme.
Leissner, the former head of Goldman’s Southeast Asia division, blamed Ng for introducing him to Low in 2008, as the German banker claimed the Chinese-Malaysian businessman later set out his plans to embezzle billions from the Malaysian government, during a meeting at his London flat in 2012.
The German banker said he paid Ng $35m in kickbacks, as claimed that he and Ng later came up with a cover story through which they claimed that money generated through the scheme had come from legitimate business ventures involving their wives.
In seeking to discredit Leissner, Ng’s lawyers claimed their client’s former boss at the US investment bank had sought to implicate Ng in the scandal, in the hopes of getting a shorter sentence, after Leissner plead guilty to similar charges in 2018.
Ng’s legal team also accused Leissner of being a “double bigamist” during the trial, as it emerged the Goldman exec had forged divorce papers twice, to marry two separate women while still being married to his ex-wives.