© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng leaves the federal court docket in New York, U.S., Could 6, 2019. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon/File Picture
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Prosecutors started a U.S. corruption trial on Monday by accusing a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) banker of searching for to make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} laundering cash looted from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Roger Ng, Goldman’s former head of funding banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder cash and to violate an anti-bribery regulation. He has pleaded not responsible and Ng’s lawyer has referred to as him a “fall man” for one of many largest monetary scandals in Wall Avenue historical past.
“The defendant noticed a chance to make hundreds of thousands of {dollars} by dishonest, and he took it,” the prosecution stated in a gap assertion on Monday.
The trial in Brooklyn federal court docket might last as long as six weeks.
Prosecutors are prone to argue that Ng helped two co-conspirators – his former boss, Timothy Leissner, and Malaysian middleman Jho Low – launder funds embezzled from 1MDB and used a few of the stolen cash to bribe officers within the Southeast Asian nation to win enterprise for Goldman.
Leissner, a former companion for Goldman Sachs in Asia, in 2018 pleaded responsible to conspiracy to launder cash, and conspiracy to violate the International Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), partially by serving to to pay $1.6 billion in bribes. He’s anticipated to testify as a authorities witness towards Ng.
Ng’s protection is anticipated to argue that he had no position within the scheme perpetrated by Low and Leissner, and that he even warned Goldman administration to not belief Low. Ng’s protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo has stated Leissner falsely implicated Ng within the scheme in an effort to reduce his punishment.
Leissner has but to be sentenced.
The scandal stems from some $6.5 billion in bonds that Goldman helped 1MDB – launched by former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to spur financial development – promote from 2009 to 2014. U.S. prosecutors allege round $4.5 billion of that cash was embezzled.
U.S. authorities say Goldman earned $600 million in charges from the offers. The financial institution in 2020 paid a $2.3 billion effective, returned $600 million in ill-gotten beneficial properties and agreed for its Malaysian subsidiary to plead responsible in U.S. court docket as a part of a deal, often known as a deferred prosecution settlement (DPA), with the Division of Justice.
The trial might make clear how Goldman responded to warnings of attainable corruption, however the financial institution is unlikely to face materials harm.
Low, who was indicted alongside Ng in 2018, has not been arrested by U.S. or Malaysian authorities. Malaysia has stated he’s in China, which Beijing has denied.
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