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 trial of a former Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker accused of aiding loot billions of bucks from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign prosperity fund.

Prosecutors say Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s previous top rated expenditure banker for Malaysia, helped his then-boss Tim Leissner embezzle revenue from the fund — which was established to pursue development tasks in the Southeast Asian nation — launder the proceeds and bribe officers to acquire enterprise for Goldman.

Ng, 49, has pleaded not responsible to conspiring to launder funds and violating an anti-corruption regulation. His lawyers say Leissner, who pleaded guilty to related expenses in 2018 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors’ investigation, falsely implicated Ng in the hopes of obtaining a lenient sentence.

The prices stemmed from one of the major fiscal scandals in history.

Prosecutors have stated Goldman served 1MDB increase $6.5 billion through 3 bond revenue, but that $4.5 billion was diverted to govt officials, bankers and their associates by way of bribes and kickbacks between 2009 and 2015.

Ng is the very first, and very likely only, man or woman to deal with trial in the United States in excess of the scheme. Goldman in 2020 compensated a almost $3 billion great and its Malaysian unit agreed to plead guilty.

Deliberations began on Tuesday immediately after a just about two-thirty day period trial in federal court in Brooklyn.

Jurors read 9 times of testimony from Leissner, who explained he sent Ng $35 million in kickbacks. Leissner mentioned the adult males agreed to inform banking companies a “go over tale” that the funds was from a legitimate enterprise enterprise between their wives.

Ng’s spouse, Hwee Bin Lim, later on testified for the defense that the business enterprise venture was, in reality, respectable. She explained she invested $6 million in the mid-2000s in a Chinese company owned by the spouse and children of Leissner’s then-spouse, Judy Chan, and that the $35 million was her return on that investment decision.

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

Jho Reduced, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the scheme, was indicted along with Ng in 2018 but stays at significant.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York editing by Jonathan Oatis

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