GOLDMAN Sachs banker Roger Ng was not invited to key meetings between the conspirators in the scheme to defraud 1MDB, the jury was told in his US trial reported by Bloomberg today.

As an example of Ng’s exclusion, his lawyers showed that another Goldman banker, Tim Leissner, met multiple times with alleged plot mastermind Low Taek Jho without Ng.

“Please don’t tell Roger about our meeting with the friend,” Leissner wrote in a BlackBerry message to another Goldman banker in 2012 at a time when Leissner, Low and Ng were all in Hong Kong after one of the 1MDB bond transactions closed.

Shortly afterwards, Low and Leissner separately flew to Las Vegas for a gala birthday bash, according to Katelyn Giesler, an assistant at the law firm of defence lawyer Teny Geragos. Ng’s name was not on the guest list, Giesler said.

Nor was Ng aboard a yacht on the Mediterranean chartered by Low in July 2013 when the Malaysian financier presented Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, with a 22-carat pink diamond necklace purchased with 1MDB funds, Giesler testified.

Ng also did not join Leissner and Najib for dinner in San Tropez a few days later, she said.

Ng is the only Goldman banker to go on trial in the multi-billion dollar 1MDB scandal. He is charged with plotting with his former boss Leissner and Low to rob billions of dollars from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

Leissner, who is a prosecution witness, said he collected more than US$60 (RM250) million in kickbacks from Low and paid Ng more than US$35.1 million.

The prosecution rested its case yesterday. The trial resumes on Monday. – March 25, 2022.