1MDB trial: ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng accused of pocketing US$35 million in ‘secret kickbacks’
- The former executive is on trial over his alleged ‘crucial’ role in the looting of a Malaysian state fund, but his lawyers say Ng is being made a scapegoat
- Spoils from the scandal, ‘perhaps the single largest heist in the history of the world’, were spent on gems, art, a yacht, and even funding for Hollywood films
Roger Ng also deleted personal email accounts to cover his tracks and “used his own wife and mother-in-law as a front to hide his identity”, federal prosecutor Brent Wible said as the long-delayed corruption trial opened in Brooklyn.
“He saw an opportunity to make millions of dollars by cheating,” Wible said, “and he took it”.
Ng’s own defence lawyers described the looting of US$4.5 billion from the 1MDB state investment fund as “perhaps the single largest heist in the history of the world”. But they contend US prosecutors scapegoated Ng for “corporate-wide” failures at Goldman that enabled the colossal fraud.
“Roger is 100 per cent innocent,” defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the jury. “We’re about to actually have a trial of an innocent man.”
Jurors were urged by both sides to follow the money in a complex trial expected to last several weeks. Prosecutors say the paper trail implicates Ng in a sprawling web of lies, offshore accounts and shell companies. They say Ng also conspired to launder pilfered funds through the US financial system.
The embezzlement bankrolled lavish spending on jewels, art, a superyacht and luxury real estate. The spoils even helped finance Hollywood films, including the 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio film The Wolf of Wall Street.
