ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
Featured Posts
    • Companies
    Ted Baker recommends cut-price takeover offer from Authentic Brands
    • August 16, 2022
    • Companies
    Container shipping’s tonnage tax trick
    • August 16, 2022
    • Latest News
    German recession fears deepen as economy is hit by ‘perfect storm’
    • August 16, 2022
    • Companies
    Gaming’s loot box — the slippery slope of paying for rewards
    • August 16, 2022
    • Latest News
    Liberals must overcome their aversion to conflict
    • August 16, 2022
Featured Categories
Belarussia
View Posts
Companies
View Posts
Energy
View Posts
Environment
View Posts
Food
View Posts
Governance
View Posts
Health
View Posts
Investors
View Posts
Latest News
View Posts
Markets
View Posts
Potash
View Posts
Regulators
View Posts
Russsia
View Posts
Social
View Posts
Supply Chain
View Posts
Sustainable Finance
View Posts
Technology
View Posts
Uncategorized
View Posts
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
7K
9K
4K
1K
ESG Telegraph ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Environment
  • Companies
  • Investors
  • Governance
  • Markets
  • Social
  • Regulators
  • Sustainable Finance
  • Companies

Former Goldman Sachs banker to stand trial over 1MDB scandal

  • February 14, 2022
  • Staff
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

A former Goldman Sachs banker charged in connection with the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal will stand trial in New York on Monday, more than three years after his arrest.

Roger Ng, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, was arrested in Malaysia in 2018 at the request of US authorities and charged with conspiring to bribe officials and launder billions of dollars from the Malaysian state investment fund. He was later sent back to the US to face the charges.

Opening arguments are scheduled to take place in a US federal court in Brooklyn. Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

The trial, which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has renewed attention on a global scandal that has reached from Malaysia to Switzerland and the US, with American officials labelling it “kleptocracy at its worst”.

The Department of Justice alleges a total of $4.5bn was misappropriated from 1MDB, an investment fund set up by the Malaysian government in 2009 to further the south-east Asian country’s development via partnerships and foreign direct investment.

Prosecutors said money looted from the fund was used to buy a 22-carat pink diamond, luxury property and finance the Oscar-nominated film The Wolf of Wall Street, among other things.

For Goldman, the trial is a reminder of one of the biggest scandals in the Wall Street bank’s 153-year history.

In addition to Ng, the 1MDB case has primarily implicated two other former Goldman investment bankers: Tim Leissner, who has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and violate foreign bribery laws; and Andrea Vella, a former partner at the bank who the Federal Reserve has banned from working in US banking.

Goldman earned $600mn in fees for its work with 1MDB on three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013, which raised roughly $6.5bn. Of that, the DoJ alleges that more than $2.7bn was misappropriated by Jho Low, a Malaysian financier accused of masterminding the fraud, Ng and others. Low, who has been charged by countries including the US, remains at large and denies wrongdoing.

Marc Agnifilo, Ng’s New York-based lawyer, told the Financial Times in a statement: “Roger Ng waived extradition to voluntarily come to this country because he is innocent. After being here over 1,000 days, he looks forward to his trial and to returning home to his wife and young daughter.”

Ng was also charged in Malaysia for allegedly bribing local officials to secure involvement in arranging the 2012 and 2013 bonds for 1MDB. He has pleaded not guilty.

The scandal has had knock-on effects across Goldman’s most senior ranks.

Its board of directors called the bank’s involvement in the 1MDB scheme the result of “institutional failures”. Goldman has moved to claw back up to $175mn in pay and bonuses from current and former executives, including David Solomon, the bank’s current chief executive who was Goldman’s co-head of investment banking at the time of the bond offerings, and his predecessor Lloyd Blankfein.

Solomon also had his pay for 2020 docked by $10mn to $17.5mn due to the 1MDB scandal.

Goldman, which said it was lied to by “certain members of the former Malaysian government and 1MDB”, ultimately paid a record $2.9bn in a global settlement. Its Malaysian subsidiary pleaded guilty to a bribery charge. The bank also struck a settlement of up to $3.9bn with Malaysia over losses the south-east Asian country suffered from the scandal.

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
You May Also Like
Read More
  • Companies

Ted Baker recommends cut-price takeover offer from Authentic Brands

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Container shipping’s tonnage tax trick

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Gaming’s loot box — the slippery slope of paying for rewards

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

AstraZeneca sues former executive over move to rival GSK

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Calls mount to scrap annual rail fare rise in England

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Attack on Salman Rushdie underlines threats to free speech

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Darktrace/Thoma Bravo: cash bid would chase away the shadows

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022
Read More
  • Companies

Japan activism: Murakami spins persuasive narrative on Jafco

  • Staff
  • August 16, 2022

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Featured Posts
  • 1
    Ted Baker recommends cut-price takeover offer from Authentic Brands
    • August 16, 2022
  • 2
    Container shipping’s tonnage tax trick
    • August 16, 2022
  • 3
    German recession fears deepen as economy is hit by ‘perfect storm’
    • August 16, 2022
  • 4
    Gaming’s loot box — the slippery slope of paying for rewards
    • August 16, 2022
  • 5
    Liberals must overcome their aversion to conflict
    • August 16, 2022
Recent Posts
  • AstraZeneca sues former executive over move to rival GSK
    • August 16, 2022
  • Sovereign debt architecture is messy and here to stay
    • August 16, 2022
  • Harvard to offer free MBA tuition to lowest-income students
    • August 16, 2022

Sign Up for Our Newsletters

Subscribe now to our newsletter

ESG Telegraph
  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • Guest Post
  • Contact

Input your search keywords and press Enter.