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 previous Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker accused of supporting loot billions of pounds from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s previous top rated financial investment banker for Malaysia, aided his then-manager Tim Leissner embezzle money from the fund — which was launched to go after development initiatives in the Southeast Asian nation — launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win company for Goldman.

Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launder money and violating an anti-corruption legislation. His legal professionals say Leissner, who pleaded guilty to comparable rates in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, falsely implicated Ng in the hopes of getting a lenient sentence.

The fees stemmed from 1 of the largest economical scandals in historical past.

Prosecutors have stated Goldman assisted 1MDB increase $6.5 billion by means of a few bond product sales, but that $4.5 billion was diverted to governing administration officers, bankers and their associates by means of bribes and kickbacks amongst 2009 and 2015.

Ng is the initial, and probable only, human being to experience trial in the United States over the scheme. Goldman in 2020 paid a nearly $3 billion good and its Malaysian unit agreed to plead responsible.

Deliberations commenced on Tuesday just after a virtually two-month demo in federal court docket in Brooklyn.

Jurors listened to 9 times of testimony from Leissner, who mentioned he despatched Ng $35 million in kickbacks. Leissner said the males agreed to tell banking institutions a “address story” that the money was from a respectable business undertaking among their wives.

Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim, afterwards testified for the protection that the business enterprise undertaking was, in fact, respectable. She reported she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese enterprise owned by the household of Leissner’s then-wife, Judy Chan, and that the $35 million was her return on that financial commitment.

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

Jho Very low, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the plan, was indicted along with Ng in 2018 but continues to be at huge.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York enhancing by Jonathan Oatis

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