FORMER Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng worked with nine others to steal billions of dollars from 1MDB for “glory and greed,” a prosecutor told a US jury yesterday.

In the hearing reported by Bloomberg today, prosecutor Alixandra Smith told the jurors Ng had hoped to make partner at Goldman Sachs Group Inc by helping the firm arrange bond deals for the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

“While the defendant was making millions of dollars a year working for Goldman Sachs, he wanted glory to move up from being a managing director to a partner,” Smith said. “Most importantly, he wanted the money promised, which was US$35 (RM150) million.”

Smith said Ng worked with nine other alleged co-conspirators that included former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, the two bankers’ wives, as well as 1MDB employees. 

She used a chart to demonstrate how Ng’s actions were “coordinated” with those of others, all of whom were well rewarded by alleged scheme mastermind, Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho.

“The defendant would have you believe that he’s up there by accident, the only one who didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “But all the evidence makes it clear: Everything the defendant did was in line with what all the co-conspirators were doing.”

Ng, 49, is the only Goldman banker to go to trial in the 1MDB scandal. His former boss, Leissner has admitted guilt and is the prosecution’s star witness.

The two bankers and Low are accused of conspiring to steal billions of dollars from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd.   

Ng is charged with two counts of conspiring to violate U.S. anti-bribery laws and one count of conspiring to launder money. He faces the possibility of decades in prison if he is convicted.

The prosecution said Ng received US$35 million in kickbacks through shell companies set up by his wife, Hwee Bin Lim, who has denied the claims.

Lim has not been charged in the case. – April 5, 2022.