U.S. jury deliberates in ex-Goldman banker’s 1MDB corruption trial

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) – A U.S. jury resumed deliberations on Friday in the trial of a former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker accused of supporting loot billions of bucks from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign prosperity fund.

Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs Team Inc’s previous prime investment banker for Malaysia, helped his then-manager Tim Leissner embezzle revenue from the fund — which was established to go after improvement projects in the Southeast Asian place — launder the proceeds and bribe officials to earn business enterprise for Goldman.

Ng, 49, has pleaded not responsible to conspiring to launder dollars and violating an anti-corruption law. His attorneys say Leissner, who pleaded guilty to comparable fees in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, falsely implicated Ng in the hopes of receiving a lenient sentence.

The fees stemmed from a single of the most significant economic scandals in record.

Prosecutors have said Goldman assisted 1MDB elevate $6.5 billion by way of a few bond income, but that $4.5 billion was diverted to government officials, bankers and their associates by way of bribes and kickbacks in between 2009 and 2015.

Ng is the 1st, and most likely only, human being to deal with demo in the United States more than the scheme. Goldman in 2020 paid out a almost $3 billion high-quality and its Malaysian device agreed to plead guilty.

Deliberations started on Tuesday right after a just about two-thirty day period demo in federal court in Brooklyn.

Jurors read 9 days of testimony from Leissner, who explained he sent Ng $35 million in kickbacks. Leissner explained the gentlemen agreed to explain to banks a “include tale” that the dollars was from a authentic business enterprise undertaking amongst their wives.

Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim, later on testified for the protection that the business undertaking was, in simple fact, legitimate. She explained she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese enterprise owned by the family of Leissner’s then-spouse, Judy Chan, and that the $35 million was her return on that investment.

Ng’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, mentioned in his closing argument on Monday that Leissner could not be trusted. A prosecutor, Alixandra Smith, stated in her summation that Leissner’s testimony was backed up by other evidence.

Jho Reduced, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the plan, was indicted along with Ng in 2018 but remains at substantial.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York enhancing by Jonathan Oatis

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