FORMER Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, one of the key figures in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) scandal, was yesterday sentenced to 10 years in prison by a New York judge after the jury found him guilty of money laundering and violating US anti-bribery laws, The Guardian reported.

In mitigation, Ng’s lawyers had pleaded that he be released on time served, saying that the banker had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following his time in a Malaysian prison.

“There’s no more deterrence I can think of than putting a Goldman Sachs director in a jail with a hole and contracting malaria and leprosy,” Ng’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said.

However, prosecutors demanded Ng serve 15 years, arguing his “cut” of US$35 million (RM158 million) had not been recovered.

Judge Margo Brodie said 10 years was “sufficient” to “reflect the seriousness of the crimes” that involved “complex financial deals that raised US$6 billion, paid US$1.6 billion in bribes, US$1 billion in kickbacks – money that was meant to benefit the people of Malaysia.”

Ng and his former boss Tim Leissner, Goldman’s then head of southeast Asia, worked to raise US$6.5 billion for 1MDB via bond sales in 2012 and 2013.

The pair embezzled and laundered money from 1MDB, conspiring with Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, to loot the sovereign wealth fund, the jury found.

Leissner had previously agreed to testify against Ng in exchange for a guilty plea.

Goldman later struck a deal with authorities in multiple nations, including Malaysia, to pay almost US$6 billion in restitution for its role in the scandal.

1MDB evolved from the Terengganu Investment Authority into the sovereign wealth fund in 2009, the year former prime minister Najib Razak took office, but by 2016 had amassed debts of more than RM50 billion.

In 2015 Najib and Low were implicated in the fraud, which eventually led to the downfall of Najib’s administration 2018.

In 2020, Najib was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison for seven counts of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Najib continues to deny any wrongdoing over his role in the scandal, despite multiple cases pending, while Low remains at large. – March 10, 2023.