An ex-Goldman Sachs banker testified in federal courtroom on Wednesday that greed and ambition motivated his participation in a large bribery scheme that stole billions of dollars from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.
The former chief of Goldman’s Southeast Asia operation — Tim Leissner — is the excessive profile witness within the legal trial of Roger Ng, former head of investment banking in Malaysia.
The trial started in federal court on Monday in Brooklyn, New York.
Roger Ng is accused of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks for his involvement in embezzling funds from 1MDB and for serving to to kind a relationship with the Malaysian finances Jho Low, who was the principle mediator between 1MDB and the financial institution.
However, Ng’s lawyer on Wednesday asserted that Ng didn’t play a task within the embezzlement scheme allegedly dedicated by Low and Leissner.
Leissner said in 2012 that those that would must be bribed included the then Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Nab Razak.
Malaysian authorities accuse the former PM of getting acquired greater than US$1 billion linked to the fund.
Razak, who was voted out of workplace in 2018, has denied wrongdoing and appealed a 12-year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, Ng has pleaded not responsible in conspiring to violate an anti-bribery regulation and interact in money laundering.
In a 2018 trial, Leissner pleaded responsible to related costs and agreed to cooperate with the government’s ongoing legal investigation.
Approved stated that his greed and ambition took over, however that the results of his actions had destroyed his life.
1MDB earned US $600 million in charges and offered for US$6.5 billion in bonds for the fund.
In 2020, the financial institution paid a massive nice of nearly US$3 billion and made arrangements for its Malaysian department to plead guilty in US court docket..