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NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) – Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng has called for the overseas bribery case against him to be dismissed, saying he “warned” the bank not to do business with Malaysian financier Jho Low.
Ng, who says he told Goldman that “Low could not be trusted,” will face trial next year on charges of bribery and conspiracy to launder money. He is accused of helping former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and others embezzle at least US $ 2.7 billion (S $ 3.630 million) from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund, known as 1MDB. Low is accused of planning the plan.
In a 126-page presentation, Ng says the United States does not have to prosecute him because the alleged crimes were committed in Malaysia.
He also argues that his former boss, Tim Leissner, a former Goldman banker who agreed to plead guilty and testify against him, is really the central figure in the plan because he ultimately persuaded the bank to do business with Low.
As early as March 2010, Ng “specifically warned” his superiors at Goldman to “be careful when dealing with Low,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo says in the filing.
“Ng’s warnings were shared with the highest levels of the company’s legal and compliance divisions. The company did not listen to him.”
Goldman’s spokeswoman Maeve DuVally, Leissner’s attorney Henry Mazurek and Mr. John Marzulli, spokesperson for Acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme in Brooklyn, New York, whose office is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on the filing.
Low, who has denied committing a crime, is considered a fugitive and has been charged in absentia in Malaysia and the United States with money laundering and other crimes.
Goldman agreed to pay billions of dollars in fines to the Justice Department and other US authorities for their role in the 1MDB scandal, the largest foreign bribery case in the history of US law enforcement.
‘Rain producer partner’
Ng acknowledges that he first introduced Low to the bank, but says it was “in early 2009, when no one had reason to know that Low was executing a fraud scheme.” By 2012, he says, Leissner had become Low’s main contact at Goldman and the “most powerful partner” and “who makes the rain.”
“It was Leissner, and only Leissner, who thereafter lied for Low, protected Low, and eventually became a full-fledged criminal in Low’s service,” he argues.
Leissner, who was one of Goldman’s top bankers in Asia, admitted to conspiring to launder money and violating US anti-bribery laws while participating in a bribery scheme from 2009 to 2014 to obtain 1MDB’s business. He is scheduled to testify against Ng at trial.
In the filing, Agnifilo also attacks a “silence” provision that he says the United States implemented as part of its multi-million dollar deferred prosecution agreement with Goldman. The requirement means that any Goldman official Ng warned about Low will now be “afraid” to tell the truth, worried that he will nullify the bank’s deal with the United States, he says.
He says the provision, “applied at the sole discretion of the government, ensures that no Goldman employee contradicts the government’s narrative regarding Goldman’s misconduct, including the alleged misconduct by Ng for which he is accused.”
Mr. Agnifilo contends that “this creates a constitutional issue in this case” by restricting Ng’s use of witnesses in his defense.
Ng, who is free on $ 20 million bail, is scheduled to go to trial in March.
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