Goldman banker appeals conviction over Malaysian embezzlement scandal

MANHATTAN (CN) — Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng asked a Second Circuit panel Thursday to overturn his conviction and sentence for his role in the theft of billions of dollars from a Malaysian public fund, one of the largest financial schemes in history.

A federal judge sentenced Ng to 10 years in prison last year after a Brooklyn jury found him guilty of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act through bribery and circumventing accounting controls, as well as conspiring to launder money from the scheme.

Prosecutors say Ng made $35 million off corrupt bond deals through a massive scheme that siphoned money from 1Malaysia Development Berhard, otherwise known as 1MDB. The plot rose to the ranks of then-Prime Minister Najib Razak, who received a 12-year sentence in Malaysia for his participation.

But Ng says his conviction and sentence were “marred by a series of erroneous rulings,” and pointed specifically to a recorded video call that was excluded by the federal court during trial between the two most important defense witnesses, dismissing it as hearsay.

The call was between Ng’s wife Hwee Bin Lim and his former boss Tim Leissner, and Ng said the call would have shone light on whether the $35.1 million payment was an illegal kickback to him or a return on a prior investment by his wife.

According to Ng, Lim asked Leissner in the call to help her locate documents relating to her prior investment with Leissner’s wife which would account for the exorbitant payment at the center of the trial.

“The jury clearly focused on the issue,” Alexandra Shapiro, an attorney with Shapiro Arato representing Ng, said Thursday. “The first thing they asked for during their deliberations was Ms. Lim’s testimony, the video recording between Mr. Leissner and Ms. Lim could have provided critical corroboration of Ms. Lim’s account.”

But U.S. Circuit Judge Beth Robinson, a Joe Biden appointee, said the video doesn’t show whether those documents existed.

“The video shows her asking for it. It doesn’t corroborate the existence of a prior investment any more than her testimony,” Robinson said. “It’s just another setting in which she’s indicating that she’s looking for these things. We don’t actually know if they exist beyond her request.”

But Shapiro said that if the jury had the opportunity to look at the video, they would have been able to glean whether she was telling the truth.

“I urge the court to look at the video because I think if you see her demeanor, I think it’s very probative of the fact that she was telling the truth,” Shapiro said.

The government disputed Shapiro’s claims and argued Lim suspected Leissner was cooperating with the government at the time of the call, and stuck with her “cover story” that the payment was a return on her investment rather than an illegal kickback.

“Ms. Lim knows that somebody is listening so she’s sticking with the cover story that they’ve come up with,” Alixandra Smith, an assistant U.S. attorney, said. “She’s certainly not going to reveal on a call where she thinks someone she’s speaking to is working with law enforcement what is really going on.”

Ng also claims the government violated its extradition agreement by bringing down superseding indictments despite convincing him to waive extradition in exchange for only trying him on offenses outlined in the initial indictment.

He also asserted that venue was improper in the case, claiming that none of the essential criminal elements in the case occurred in the Eastern District of New York where he was charged.

U.S. Circuit Judge Amalya Kearse, a Jimmy Carter appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, a Donald Trump appointee, rounded out the panel.

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