NEW YORK: Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng has lost a long-shot bid to overturn his federal conviction for helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysian fund 1MDB, one of the largest financial crimes in history.
Ng, the only Goldman banker to face US trial for the fraud, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, in 2022. The United States allowed him to return home to Malaysia to assist in their investigation just as he was about to start serving his sentence in 2023.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan affirmed the verdict, rejecting his claim that his trial was unfair because the judge blocked jurors from hearing a key recording, that the government broke an agreement with him in which he had waived extradition from Malaysia and that the case shouldn't have been tried in Brooklyn.
"We find none of his contentions persuasive," US Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse wrote in a 50-page opinion Friday on behalf of a three-judge panel.
A lawyer for Ng didn't immediately return an email seeking comment on the ruling.
Prosecutors said Ng and his onetime boss at Goldman, Tim Leissner, carried out the fraud with Malaysian financier Jho Low, the scheme's alleged mastermind. Low, now a fugitive, allegedly paid hundreds of millions of dollars to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to clinch bond deals arranged by Goldman, taking US$1.42bil for himself.
Leissner made US$73.4mil in the scheme while Ng got US$35.1mil, prosecutors said.
Ng argued to the appeals court that his conviction was marred by a series of erroneous rulings by the trial judge, including the claim that she "gutted" his defence by blocking his lawyers from playing a recorded video call between his wife and Leissner, which Ng said could prove the US$35mil payment wasn't a kickback.
On the call, Ng said his wife asked Leissner to help locate documents related to an investment she had with Leissner's wife, which he said would account for the funds.
Prosecutors pushed back on these arguments, saying the disputed call did not prove that Ng's wife had a prior investment with Leissner's then-wife.
Ng was convicted on three counts, including conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and conspiring to launder money.
The case is US v Ng Chong Hwa, 23-633, Second Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan). – Bloomberg
