Ex-Goldman banker must forfeit US$35.1m in 1MDB corruption case

A US judge on Friday ordered former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng to forfeit US$35.1 million (RM155 million), after sentencing him to 10 years in prison for helping loot billions of dollars from 1MDB.

US District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn rejected Ng’s argument that he owed no more money after forfeiting to Malaysia tens of millions of dollars of alleged proceeds from his crimes.

Ng’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo also said his client, a Malaysian and Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, had been drained of most of his assets.

Brodie, however, said the US$35.1 million forfeiture was not constitutionally excessive.

She also said that even if Ng (above) were less culpable than others, “he played a role in one of the largest financial crimes of all time,” a scheme that caused “intangible harm to the public’s confidence in democracy and government.”

Agnifilo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Brodie imposed Ng’s prison sentence on March 9, 11 months after jurors found him guilty of helping his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from 1MDB, launder the proceeds, and bribe government officials to win business.

Fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, the suspected mastermind of the scheme, was also indicted but remains at large.

Leissner faces a Sept 6 sentencing.

Goldman settled with authorities in October 2020, agreeing to pay US$2.9 billion and having its Malaysian unit plead guilty to a corruption charge.

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak is serving a 12-year prison sentence after being convicted of receiving US$10 million from a former 1MDB unit. Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing.

- Reuters