Former Goldman Sachs banker denies 1MDB charges

Prosecutors on Monday accused a former Goldman Sachs banker of seeking to make millions of dollars laundering money looted from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Roger Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.

“The defendant saw an opportunity to make millions of dollars by cheating, and he took it,” Assistant US attorney Brent Wible said in an opening statement on Monday.

Ng has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer has said he is a “fall guy” for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

“Roger is 100% innocent,” defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo said in his opening statement. “That’s not because of some technicality, that’s not because of some trick. … This is a massive crime and there are lots of guilty people. He’s just not one of them.”

The trial in Brooklyn federal court could last up to six weeks.

Prosecutors are expected to argue that Ng helped two co-conspirators – his former boss, Timothy Leissner, and Malaysian intermediary Jho Low – launder funds embezzled from 1MDB and used some of the stolen money to bribe officials in the Southeast Asian country to win business for Goldman.

Leissner, a former partner for Goldman Sachs in Asia, in 2018 pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), in part by helping to pay US$1.6 billion in bribes. He is expected to testify as a government witness against Ng.

The defence has said Ng had no role in the scheme perpetrated by Low and Leissner, and that he even warned Goldman management not to trust Low.

Agnifilo focused his opening statement largely on undermining Leissner, who is expected to testify for the government. Leissner has yet to be sentenced.

“The protector of Low all along was Leissner. It was never Roger,” he said. “Leissner uses people. You will see this time and time again. He is trying to use my client … to serve his jail time.”

Agnifilo has said Leissner falsely implicated Ng in the scheme in an effort to minimise his punishment.

The scandal stems from some US$6.5 billion in bonds that Goldman helped 1MDB – launched by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to spur economic growth – sell from 2009 to 2014. US prosecutors allege around US$4.5 billion of that money was embezzled.

US authorities say Goldman earned US$600 million in fees from the deals. The bank in 2020 paid a US$2.3 billion fine, returned US$600 million in ill-gotten gains and agreed for its Malaysian subsidiary to plead guilty in US court as part of a deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), with the DoJ.

The trial could shed light on how Goldman responded to warnings of possible corruption, but the bank is unlikely to face material damage.

Low, who was indicted alongside Ng in 2018, has not been arrested by US or Malaysian authorities and his whereabouts are unknown. (Reuters)