Roger Ng

Roger Ng was indicted in 2018 for his role in the looting of Malaysia’s government fund. His trial starts Monday February 14 2022. The trial comes nearly four years after Mr. Ng, 49, a Malaysian resident, was indicted by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. And it comes 16 months after Goldman Sachs pleaded guilty to a criminal charge and paid $5 billion in fines for its role in the far-reaching foreign corruption bribery scheme. Jho Low, the mastermind of the scheme to loot more than $4 billion from the big Malaysian fund known as 1MDB, remains a fugitive and is believed to be living in China. Tim Leissner, the former Goldman partner who pleaded guilty in the summer of 2018 and has been cooperating with the government, is expected to be the prosecution’s star witness. Money looted from 1MDB went to buy a boutique hotel in Beverly Hills, apartment buildings, artwork, a mega-yacht, a grand piano made of clear acrylic that was given to a supermodel as a gift and a share of the EMI Music Publishing portfolio. Some of the money even financed the Hollywood movie “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Most of the purchases were made by Mr. Low. Mr. Leissner is likely to face a fierce cross-examination from Mr. Ng’s legal defense team. Lawyers could draw from a dossier that Goldman had put together, presenting Mr. Leissner as a master con artist who had a doctorate from a mail-order diploma mill and had affairs with powerful women in Asia, including a client of the firm’s.