Ex-Goldman partner Tim Leissner to testify against former colleague Roger Ng in 1MDB trial in US

PETALING JAYA: Two former Goldman Sachs colleagues will face off in a Brooklyn, New York, courtroom on Wednesday (Feb 16) over the looting of hundreds of millions of dollars from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund, one of the biggest scandals in Wall Street history.

According to Reuters, prosecutors will call their star witness, Tim Leissner, a former Goldman partner and Malaysian Roger Ng's former boss at the bank's South-East Asia operation.

In 2018, Leissner, 52, pleaded guilty to money laundering and bribery charges and agreed to cooperate with the US government's investigation.

Ng, 49, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law.

Leissner will likely be questioned by the US government about Ng's alleged involvement in a scheme to embezzle some of those funds, use some of them to bribe officials to win business for Goldman, and keep some for themselves.

Prosecutors have said Leissner's testimony will be backed up by other evidence.

"He'll give you an inside view of this bribery and money laundering scheme," prosecutor Brent Wible said in court on Monday (Feb 14).

Ng's defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo has countered that Leissner, who has not yet been sentenced, lied to prosecutors about Ng's involvement in a bid to lighten his punishment.

Agnifilo spent much of his opening statement attacking Leissner's credibility, portraying him as a socialite who stole to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Leissner's testimony was expected to start at 9.30am EST (1430 GMT).

A lawyer for Leissner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday (Feb 14), prosecutors said in opening statements in a Brooklyn federal court that Ng had received millions in kickbacks for helping embezzle funds from 1MDB.

Ng has pleaded not guilty.

Agnifilo, in his opening statement, said Ng had no role in the scheme allegedly perpetrated by Leissner and Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, a Malaysian financier who served as an intermediary for deals in which Goldman helped 1MDB sell US$6.5bil (RM27.21bil) in bonds.

Low, the accused mastermind behind the scheme, was indicted in the United States alongside Ng in 2018.

He has not been arrested by the US or Malaysian authorities.

US prosecutors say Goldman earned US$600mil (RM2.51bil) in fees from the deals, and that around US$4.5bil (RM18.84bil) of the funds raised was embezzled.

Goldman paid a nearly US$3bil (RM12.56bil) fine and arranged for its Malaysian subsidiary to plead guilty in the US court.

The bonds in question that Goldman helped 1MDB, launched by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to spur economic growth, were sold from 2009 to 2014.