Leissner's ex Rohana has returned US$10mil in 1MDB-linked assets to MACC, says report

PETALING JAYA: Datuk Rohana Rozhan, former girlfriend of disgraced Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, has returned the US$10mil (RM44.3mil) in 1MDB-linked cash and assets to the MACC, says an Utusan Malaysia report on Friday (March 24).

The Malay-language daily quoted a source familiar with the case and said that the former Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd group CEO had surrendered the cash and assets to the government last year.

"She returned all the money and assets (involved) to the MACC, which then handed it to the government.

"With that, MACC's investigations concerning Rohana have been completed. At this point, there is nothing more needed from her," the source told Utusan Malaysia.

However, the source could not provide a detailed breakdown of the funds and assets returned, as well as the procedure involved.

On Thursday (March 23), Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said in a parliamentary written reply that the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has no knowledge of whether Rohana has returned the US$10mil in assets she gained from Leissner.

Azalina was responding to a question from Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng on whether Rohana had returned the funds.

He also wanted to know how much of 1MDB-linked assets had been returned.

In February 2022, Leissner told a US court that Rohana, with whom he had an affair, had blackmailed him into buying her a US$10mil property in London.

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He told the jury in the trial that the relationship had lasted from 2003 to 2013 when he ended the relationship to marry US model Kimora Lee Simmons.

He said he bought her the US$10mil home in London after she’d threatened to expose his involvement with 1MDB.

"She was very upset that I was ending our relationship to be with my future wife, with Kimora,” Leissner testified.

In April 2022, an MACC source told The Star that Rohana had agreed, in principle, to return the US$10mil she had received from Leissner.

Leissner, a former partner with Goldman Sachs in Asia, pleaded guilty in 2018 to a conspiracy to launder money and became the US prosecution’s star witness against his former colleague at Goldman, Roger Ng.

Following that, the MACC began investigating Rohana, while she released a statement saying she was ready to assist the authorities in their investigations.