“Federal prosecutors said the money Najib and his family received were bribes for approving Goldman as the main underwriter on the 1MDB bond deals, and the fact that the US court found Ng guilty of all charges means the FBI’s testimony regarding the monies Najib and his stepson pocketed holds water”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
بريتا بوروق بوات نجيب – جوري اس داڤتي روڬير ءڠ برساله، برمعنى جيجق اليرن واڠ فبي سه
A United States (US) jury has found former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng guilty of corruption charges related to his role in helping loot hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund.
The jury convicted Ng of two counts of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) through bribery and circumvention of Goldman’s internal accounting controls, as well as one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
This is certainly bad news for former Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, whose name and those of his family members popped up on multiple occasions throughout Ng’s trial.
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According to the facts of the case, Goldman helped 1MDB raise US$6.5 billion through three bond sales, before US$4.5 billion was diverted to Malaysian government officials, bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks between 2009 and 2015.
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Ng, Goldman’s former top investment banker for Malaysia, had facilitated the diversion by helping his former boss, Timothy Leissner, embezzle money from 1MDB and launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman.
Leissner is a former Goldman partner and the US government’s star witness.
According to Eric Van Dorn, a forensic accountant for the FBI, Najib’s stepson, Riza Aziz, pocketed US$238 million from the deals and used the money to fund and produce the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street.
Ng received US$35.1 million in illegal proceeds from two of the three bond transactions, while Leissner collected about twice as much, or US$73.4 million.
Van Dorn also said that 1MDB’s former general counsel, Jasmine Loo Ai Swan, made US$12.6 million in the three bond offerings, while Najib took home whopping US$756 million, which was banked into his private accounts from Jho Low’s shell companies.
This brings the total Najib and his step-son received well above RM4 billion.
Federal prosecutors said the money Najib and his family received were bribes for approving Goldman as the main underwriter on the 1MDB bond deals, and the fact that the US court found Ng guilty of all charges means the FBI’s testimony regarding the monies Najib and his stepson pocketed holds water.
Ng’s conviction also lends credence to all of Leissner’s testimonies regarding the conditions Najib and Jho Low were said to have laid out for Goldman Sachs to participate in the issuance of 1MDB bonds.
According to Leissner, Low had “chased” him to make a donation to Badan Amal dan Kebajikan Tenaga Isteri-Isteri (Bakti), a ‘non-profit’ organisation run by Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
Leissner said Najib had asked for help to secure positions for his three children at Goldman when the former premier met up with the bank’s then CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York to discuss 1MDB bond transactions.
The day after Leissner said this, Najib’s daughter, Nooryana Najwa Najib, admitted that she was introduced to a job at an investment firm by Leissner, confirming that a member of Najib’s family was assisted by a top Goldman banker seeking to do business with 1MDB.
This raised the stark possibility that Najib had abused his position as Prime Minister by letting Goldman handle 1MDB bond transactions as a quid pro quo for favours rendered to his family members by Goldman officials.
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