A former Goldman Sachs banker charged with helping to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund will go on trial in the United States next week, in a case that could shed light on how the bank responded to warnings of corruption, Reuters reported. Roger Ng, Goldman's former investment banking chief in Malaysia, will be the first — and likely only — person to stand trial in the United States over one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history. Ng's former boss, Timothy Leissner, pleaded guilty in 2018 to money laundering and corruption charges, while a Goldman subsidiary in 2020 pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate an anti-bribery law. Ng has pleaded not guilty to three counts of conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law. Opening statements are scheduled for Monday in federal court in Brooklyn. Prosecutors say Ng and Leissner evaded Goldman's internal compliance protocols. But Ng's lawyers say he had no role in the crimes and that Leissner falsely implicated him in an effort to reduce his punishment. Leissner, Goldman's former Southeast Asia chairman, has not yet been sentenced. The charges against Ng, 50, are related to some $4.5 billion U.S. prosecutors say was embezzled between 2009 and 2014 from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, a fund launched in 2009 by Malaysia's former prime minister, Najib Razak, to spur economic growth. During that period, prosecutors say, Goldman earned $600 million in fees for helping 1MDB sell $6.5 billion in bonds. But Ng, Leissner, and a Malaysian intermediary named Jho Low conspired to pay $1.6 billion in bribes to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to win the business for Goldman, according to prosecutors.
