U.S. jury deliberates in ex-Goldman banker’s 1MDB corruption trial

NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) – A U.S. jury resumed deliberations on Friday in the demo of a former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker accused of serving to loot billions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign prosperity fund.

Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs Team Inc’s former prime investment banker for Malaysia, served his then-boss Tim Leissner embezzle funds from the fund — which was started to go after progress assignments in the Southeast Asian place — launder the proceeds and bribe officers to acquire small business for Goldman.

Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launder cash and violating an anti-corruption legislation. His attorneys say Leissner, who pleaded guilty to identical prices in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, falsely implicated Ng in the hopes of getting a lenient sentence.

The rates stemmed from just one of the major economic scandals in historical past.

Prosecutors have reported Goldman assisted 1MDB increase $6.5 billion by means of 3 bond revenue, but that $4.5 billion was diverted to federal government officers, bankers and their associates by way of bribes and kickbacks concerning 2009 and 2015.

Ng is the first, and most likely only, person to face trial in the United States in excess of the plan. Goldman in 2020 paid out a just about $3 billion high-quality and its Malaysian unit agreed to plead guilty.

Deliberations began on Tuesday right after a approximately two-thirty day period trial in federal court docket in Brooklyn.

Jurors read nine days of testimony from Leissner, who reported he despatched Ng $35 million in kickbacks. Leissner explained the gentlemen agreed to inform banks a “cover tale” that the income was from a legitimate business enterprise undertaking in between their wives.

Ng’s wife, Hwee Bin Lim, later on testified for the defense that the business enterprise venture was, in fact, reputable. She said she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese organization owned by the household of Leissner’s then-spouse, Judy Chan, and that the $35 million was her return on that expenditure.

Ng’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, claimed in his closing argument on Monday that Leissner could not be trusted. A prosecutor, Alixandra Smith, claimed in her summation that Leissner’s testimony was backed up by other proof.

Jho Reduced, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the plan, was indicted together with Ng in 2018 but continues to be at huge.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York modifying by Jonathan Oatis

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