A former banker for Goldman Sachs has been sentenced to prison after being convicted of helping to embezzle billions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund, reports Financial Advisor.
51-year-old Roger Ng was sentenced last week in federal court to 10 years behind bars. Ng was found guilty in April 2022 on all three of the counts against him following an eight-week trial. He was charged with two counts of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery law, and one count of conspiring to commit money laundering.
Prosecutors said Ng and other Goldman Sachs bankers helped 1MDB raise $6.5 billion through three bond sales, but arranged to have $4.5 billion of those funds diverted to themselves and other co-conspirators through bribes and kickbacks. Ng’s defense attorneys said that a massive heist had been perpetrated against the development fund, but said that their client had been falsely implicated in the scheme by the government’s star witness Tim Leissner, a higher-ranking Goldman Sachs banker.
Ng was accused of helping Leissner embezzle and launder money, and bribe officials to win business for Goldman Sachs. Ng allegedly received $35 million in illegal kickbacks.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office had asked for a 15-year sentence for Ng, saying “Roger Ng played a critical role in a massive bribery and money laundering scheme that stole billions of dollars intended for infrastructure and economic projects to aid the Malaysian people.”
In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie said Ng and his co-defendants “effectively stole money” that had been earmarked for infrastructure and economic development projects on behalf of the Malaysian people. Brodie said there was a need “to deter crimes of pure greed like this one.” Ng’s lawyer said his client plans to appeal the sentence. Leissner is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
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