After a trial that lasted nearly two months and four days of deliberation, jurors on Friday found Ng, 49, guilty of all three counts of the case: conspiracy to violate US anti-corruption laws, conspiracy to launder money and conspiracy to circumvent Goldman’s internal affairs. audits. He faces up to 30 years in prison. The conviction is a landmark victory for US authorities who have spent years prosecuting a fraud case in which the US Department of Justice claims $ 4.5 billion was embezzled from the Malaysian state investment fund. “The verdict is: Roger Ng is guilty, he has been convicted on all three charges,” the New York Eastern District Attorney’s Office said on its official Twitter account. Ng, his former boss Tim Leissner and Malaysian financier Jho Low have been indicted by DoJ. Leisner has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, while Lowe remains innocent and free. Kenneth Polite, head of the DoJ crime division, said Ng had been “involved in a massive and unprecedented bribery and money laundering program” involving the corruption of senior officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, as well as money laundering in the United States. “The plan was huge in scale. . . audacity in its execution. . . and he was obscene in his greed, “said Breon Peace, a U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York where the trial took place. The government claimed that Ng was a critical link between 1MDB and Low.

As the former head of Goldman Investment Banking in Malaysia and later a member of the bank’s securities division in Asia, Ng was involved in settling the bank for 1MDB bond agreements. The Wall Street bank settled three transactions in 2012 and 2013 that raised about $ 6.5 billion, part of which was misappropriated to pay bribes to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, according to US authorities. The stolen funds were used to buy expensive works of art, luxury real estate, and even to fund The Wolf of Wall Street, the Oscar-nominated film for financial offenses, among others. The government accused Ng, who did not testify during his trial, of putting about $ 35 million in stolen 1MDB funds in his pocket and trying to cover his tracks by deleting entire email accounts. Ng’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, argued that his client had nothing to do with the payment, which he said was linked to an unrelated investment involving his wife. The lawsuit was settled out of court by Ng and Leissner, a former Goldman associate who pleaded guilty to money laundering and bribery in connection with 1MDB. Leissner then became the government’s protagonist in Ng’s trial. Leisner signed a cooperation agreement with the US authorities in the hope of receiving a milder punishment. When convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison. Throughout the trial, Agnifilo told jurors that there was no evidence linking Ng to the 1MDB fraud other than Leissner’s testimony, which he said contained inaccuracies. He said Ng was the “fall guy” and repeatedly questioned Leissner’s credibility, calling him the “only” liar and recording lies Leissner had told his associates, Goldman and US authorities. Goldman, which earned more than $ 600 million in commissions from the 1MDB bond deals, said it lied to “some members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB”. The bank settled up to $ 3.9 billion with Malaysia and set a record $ 2.9 billion in a global settlement in 2020. Its Malaysian subsidiary has pleaded guilty to bribery.