A Former Goldman Sachs banker has been found guilty and faces up to 30 years prison time for conspiring to violate an anti-corruption law and money laundering.
Roger Ng, Goldman’s former top investment banker for Malaysia, was convicted by a US jury on Friday on corruption charges related to his role in helping loot hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund.
Proceeds from the scam were used on items including a $200 million super-yacht and to finance “The Wolf of Wall Street” movie.
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RT reports: Despite the participation of several others in the scheme, including its alleged mastermind, Malaysian financier Jho Low, Ng was the only Goldman Sachs banker to end up on trial, pleading not guilty to conspiracy to launder money and two counts of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. While his defense lawyers acknowledged that the theft was “perhaps the single largest heist in the history of the world,” they insist American prosecutors scapegoated Ng for the crimes of others who gave evidence to the government, specifically fellow Goldman banker Tim Leissner.
After raising $6.5 billion for 1MDB through bond sales, Ng and his co-conspirators diverted $4.5 billion from the massive sum into bribes, kickbacks, and a slew of luxury purchases. Their ill-gotten gains included a giant $200 million yacht, jewelry, art, and real estate, and they bankrolled wild parties, even investing in the 2013 Leo DiCaprio film ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ – itself the story of an investment banker who financed his lavish lifestyle by defrauding wealthy clients.
Ng “is basically the fall guy for this whole thing,” his defense lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, declared in his closing arguments, adding that “Tim Leissner is looking to close the biggest deal of his life.” Leissner, who was Ng’s boss at Goldman, “never stopped lying ever, and he didn’t stop lying in this courtroom,” the attorney claimed, arguing that the banker had falsely implicated Ng and made up stories to curry favor with the government.
Leissner cut a deal to testify against Ng, forfeiting $43.7 million and pleading guilty to paying millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. During the trial, he described how he, Ng, and Low “disguise[d] the flow of funds” out of 1MDB using offshore accounts and shell companies, as well as fake bank contracts. “If we told any bank the truth, it wouldn’t work,” the admitted fraudster testified, adding that Ng had specifically expressed happiness he was “going to be paid some money,” believing he had not been adequately paid by Goldman over the years.
The trial revealed the inner workings of the scheme, which saw Low divert billions in stolen money out of the fund following every Goldman bond deal, funneling the cash to co-conspirators including former Malaysian PM Najib Razak and his stepson. The lavish spending of the trio helped draw government attention, with Low dropping millions of dollars on lavish parties and gambling, while Leissner married multiple women at once, buying them houses when they threatened to disclose his fraud to the authorities.
The 1MDB scandal ultimately brought down the Malaysian government in 2018, sending Najib to prison for 12 years for abuse of power and other crimes. A subsidiary of Goldman Sachs acknowledged it had conspired to violate US anti-bribery laws, the first time the infamous investment bank had ever pleaded guilty, and was forced to pay over $5 billion in penalties for its role in the scandal.
Ng, who made $3 million from two of the bond deals, faces as much as 30 years in prison. Low, who allegedly took home $1.42 billion from the scam, remains at large.
Niamh Harris
Meanwhile when ausyralia biggest bank pled no contest to something like 34000 charges of the same, no one went to jail the CEO stepped down and disappeared to no doubt a great position somewhere else under a new name and identity. Nothing happened to the bank at all That’s ausyralia you see that everyone thinks is so great.
Since those crimes are standard procedure for Finance, it is more than likely he split from the herd and wants his soul back, so they ousted him. Why else accuse him of a crime they commit all the time, even with the Vatican? He is smiling because they will all burn in Hell but he is giving up everything to have his soul back and be with God.
Very similar to many other former freemasons, who by their rules, must “lose their Head” meaning lose their public image and be condemned as an evil person for leaving freemasonry. The devil has control over all publicity, good for his followers and bad for any follower who refuses to serve as his weapon of choice, any longer.
And rhe Courts cleaned the whole thing up to make it fit for public consumption
If they had allowed the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth then the entire global banking industry would be in ruins and the world’s top bankers and executives investment fund managers all in jail All of them. Basically “They’re all in it together” Princess Dianna To deceive the world about the fact that it’s all a class war. There’s nobpoliticalbodologirs or fancy idealism or rubbish rbotorucs about saving democracies or Jews or nazis, or any other crap It’s all about class. Everything else is tools to manipulate the masses with To deceive them.
no political ideologies. Correction.
Peanuts!