![]() Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim, testified for the defense that she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese company owned by the family of Leissner’s then-wife, Judy Chan, and that the funds were her return on that investment. Leissner spilled lurid details about the 1MDB scheme during his nine days of testimony, but it was his confession that both he and Ng concocted a “cover story” that the $35.1 million in kickbacks the Malaysian national was convicted of laundering had derived from a business venture between their wives that was the coup de grace. “But it was always an uphill battle, given the documents that supported his accomplice testimony.” “The defense had plenty of ammunition to make Tim Leissner the real bad guy here,” said Kevin J O’Brien, a former assistant US attorney and seasoned trial lawyer specializing in white-collar criminal defense. Roger Ng says he’s a ‘fall guy’ in the 1MDB scandal. ![]() But the jury ultimately did not buy Ng’s explanation that the funds acquired were from a legitimate business investment. Ng’s defense portrayed him as a “fall guy” for his ex-boss, and had challenged Leissner’s credibility by casting him as a habitual liar testifying against his former junior partner in a desperate bid to spare himself prison time. ![]() The 50-year-old ex-banker’s testimony provided the most incriminating evidence of Ng’s involvement in the multibillion-dollar corruption scheme. Leissner, Goldman’s former chairman of Southeast Asia, pleaded guilty in 2018 and forfeited $44 million in a deal with prosecutors to cooperate as the government’s star witness against Ng. Ng was found guilty on April 8 after being accused of receiving US$35.1 million in illegal kickbacks and helping his ex-boss, Tim Leissner, embezzle money and bribe officials to win business for Goldman Sachs as part of $4.5 billion that was misappropriated from 1MDB in what has been described as one of the largest ever financial heists worldwide. US trial testimony directly implicated the ex-premier and his wife Rosmah Mansor, while also raising questions about the involvement of others – a fact Najib’s legal team is now attempting to leverage to the ex-premier’s advantage. The speedy US conviction of Ng, also known by his birth name Ng Chong Hwa, is spurring calls for 1MDB-related trials in Malaysia to be expedited. He denies all wrongdoing and is waiting for a date to be set for his final appeal hearing on his conviction. ![]() Portraying himself as the victim of a political conspiracy, Najib has mounted a strong political comeback while free on bail despite his conviction for money laundering, criminal breach of trust and abuse of power in July 2020 in the first of five corruption trials he faces. SINGAPORE – Justice came swiftly for Roger Ng, the 49-year-old former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs Malaysia.Īfter an eight-week US federal court trial, Ng was found guilty by a jury in Brooklyn, New York of violating anti-corruption laws and conspiring to launder billions from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, state development fund.īut in Malaysia itself, delays in prosecuting alleged crimes linked to the globe-spanning financial scandal is for many a rising source of frustration, one that is emboldening criminally convicted former premier Najib Razak, who is seeking to overturn his own 1MDB-related guilty verdict and 12-year jail sentence.
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