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Tim leissner bail11/20/2023 ![]() Prosecutors say that the money raised for 1MDB was intended to finance infrastructure projects in Malaysia, but was instead diverted through offshore bank accounts and shell companies linked to a proxy of the then-premier, fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, and used to finance huge bribes and lavish spending. ![]() Photo: AFP via Andalou Agency / Adli Ghazali Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak talks to media at Kuala Lumpur’s High Court after a hearing in the 1MDB financial fraud case on October 25, 2018. Najib, who is appealing a 12-year prison sentence handed down in July 2020, remains free on bail. The 1MDB scandal led to the conviction on corruption charges of former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak after stolen funds linked to the bond offerings arranged by Goldman were discovered in his personal bank account. “Ng’s only chance is to make the jury take its eye off the ball and convince them that Goldman Sachs and maybe ministers in the government of Malaysia are the far bigger culprits here, and he’s just being used as a scapegoat,” said Kevin J O’Brien, a former assistant US attorney and seasoned trial lawyer specializing in white-collar criminal defense. But much still hinges on the question of Goldman’s institutional culpability in 1MDB’s fraudulent dealings. Legal experts and close observers of 1MDB proceedings say Ng faces an uphill battle in proving his innocence since prosecutors will likely show the jury incriminating emails, online chats and financial records showing he benefited from the scheme. Ng, or his birth name Ng Chong Hwa, has pleaded not guilty and denies accusations of bribing foreign officials, circumventing Goldman’s internal compliance rules, laundering portions of the US$6.5 billion raised by the bank for 1MDB through three bond issuances in 20, and allegedly pocketing about $35 million in the process. Since the February 14 opening of his trial at the US Eastern District Court of New York, lawyers for 49-year-old Roger Ng, the former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs Malaysia, have described their client as a scapegoat for companywide failures at the Wall Street bank that enabled massive fraud. The only Malaysian to be tried overseas over the scandal, meanwhile, adamantly insists he is a “fall guy.” SINGAPORE – Often described as one of the largest financial heists in history, the now-infamous money laundering and bribery scandal involving state investment fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, or 1MDB, saw billions looted from public coffers.
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