Former Goldman Banker Ng Found Guilty in 1MDB Fraud Scheme

Central to the government’s case was an FBI chart showing that Leissner sent $35 million of the booty to a shell company controlled by Ng’s wife. The FBI said she later spent $300,000 on diamond jewelry and $20,000 on a gold hourglass.

Ng was charged with two counts of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.

Low’s Spending

The panel also heard testimony about Low’s lavish spending, including more than $3.6 million he dropped on a birthday bash in Las Vegas, which records show he paid “Wolf” star Leonardo DiCaprio $250,000 to attend. A casino employee testified that Low wagered almost $87 million at his resort and lost about $26 million at baccarat. Low’s partying eventually caught the attention of bankers and authorities.

Along the way, Leissner told the jurors he created phony email accounts in which he posed as his wife to talk to his girlfriend, bought his mistress a $10 million London home after she threatened to disclose the 1MDB fraud and was twice married to two women at the same time, both times forging divorce documents.

The U.S., which called 26 witnesses, argued that Ng and Leissner concealed the fraud from their superiors at Goldman, which made more than $600 million arranging the three 1MDB bond deals in 2012 and 2013. Goldman paid Leissner at least $12 million, while Ng got $3 million after two of the bond deals closed, the government said.

Leissner, who pleaded guilty in 2018, spent 10 days on the witness stand, more than five of them under withering cross-examination by Agnifilo, who called him a “cunning liar.” In addition to his own kickbacks, Leissner testified, he paid Ng more than $35 million, which prosecutors said was laundered through a series of offshore entities.

‘Hero’ for Goldman

The former star Goldman banker told the jury that he and Ng attended a February 2012 meeting at Low’s London home in which he said the financier charted out which Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials would receive bribes. Low told Ng and Leissner they would also be “taken care of,” Leissner testified. After the meeting, Leissner said, he was “motivated” because he wanted to be “a hero” for Goldman, and Ng was “happy he was going to be paid some money.”

On cross-examination, Agnifilo noted that Leissner first mentioned such a chart to the FBI in 2021, almost three years after he began talking to the bureau. The defense also cited a 2010 report that said Ng raised “red flags” and gave “negative feedback” about Low and said he didn’t find the financier’s claims about his wealth “credible.” Agnifilo argued that Leissner falsely implicated Ng and lied repeatedly to gain favor with prosecutors.

The defense called only a handful of witnesses — notably Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim. Lim testified that the $35 million infusion prosecutors called a kickback was for an unrelated transaction in China with Leissner’s former wife. The offshore entities were in Lim’s mother’s name, records show.

Prosecutors argued that emails linked to these accounts showed that while while Lim’s mother was the beneficial owner, Ng and his wife controlled the funds. Soon after investigations into 1MDB were launched in Malaysia and Singapore, Ng also deleted a series of email accounts he had used to communicate with Low and others involved in the scheme, according to the U.S.

The case is U.S. v. Low Taek Jho, 18-cr-538, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

– With assistance from David Voreacos.