LAWYERS acting for former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng in the United States have filed for a three-month delay to the start of his 10-year prison sentence, Bloomberg reported today.

Ng was sentenced to 10 years in prison by US District Court judge Margo Brodie on March 9 for his part in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) fraud.

Marc Agnifilo, acting for Ng, said the former banker is waiting on his wife and daughter to arrive from Malaysia, adding that he hasn’t seen his daughter since his extradition in 2018.

“Due to the amount of time Mr Ng has spent away from his minor child, and the length of his sentence, we respectfully request that he be able to spend two months with his family before he surrenders,” Agnifilo said.

Agnifilo added that Ng had not broken the conditions of his bail, granted in 2019. However, Agnifilo said prosecutors had objected to the request.

During sentencing, Brodie said 10 years was “sufficient” to “reflect the seriousness of the crimes” that involved “complex financial deals that raised US$6 billion (RM26.7 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. – April 29, 2023.