Ex-Goldman Sachs banker is on trial for stealing $1B from Malaysian fund

A Goldman Sachs banker helped siphon more than $1 billion from a Malaysian development fund, diverting the cash used to fund lavish parties, chartered private jets, yachts and 6-carat diamond rings, Brooklyn prosecutors said Monday.

Roger Ng, 49, a former Goldman Sachs employee, allegedly conspired with colleague Tim Leissner and Malaysian socialite Jho Low in what’s been called by Ng’s own attorneys “the largest heist in the history of the world.” The trio persuaded the New York-based bank to raise billions in cash in 2012 for 1MDB, a Malaysian fund meant to help the country’s economy, prosecutors said.

But Ng and the two other men secretly bribed high-level officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to steal more than $1 billion from the fund for their own use, prosecutors said. Some of the pilfered cash was even used to fund the “Wolf of Wall Street” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, according to the feds.

Ng (photo) “saw an opportunity to use his position at Goldman to get rich through cheating,” said federal prosecutor Brent Wible in his opening remarks in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Ng allegedly received $35 million in kickbacks deposited in offshore accounts as the deal between Goldman Sachs and 1MDB was finalized in 2012. Meanwhile, Ng enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle with Low, the mastermind of the scam who is still on the run from the law, prosecutors said.

With his illicit proceeds, Ng bought highend real estate and expensive artwork, as well as a 6-carat diamond ring for his wife, prosecutors said.

Low, a young Malaysian “social climber,” threw massive blowout parties with Hollywood stars in Las Vegas, flew on chartered jets and had meetings with Ng on his private yacht off the coast of France in the Mediterranean Sea, prosecutors claim. Low’s access to the Malaysian government was key to Ng and Leissner’s looting of the fund, prosecutors said.

But Ng’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, argued that Leissner and Low were the real criminals, and that there was no evidence showing Ng stole from the fund, paid bribes or laundered money.

He argued the millions of dollars deposited in off-shore accounts were linked to a failed business venture run by his Ng’s wife involving a Chinese vineyard.

The prosecution’s star witness, Leissner, was a bigamist who forged divorce documents to prove to one of his wives that he was not married to anyone else, Agnifilo said.

Agnifilo said that while the crime was massive, the U.S. government was giving a pass to Leissner while going after an innocent man.

“There’s a gulf between them a mile wide,” Agnifilo said.

Leissner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and other charges in the case. Goldman Sachs pleaded guilty as well as part of an agreement with the feds and returned $2.9 billion in ill-gotten gains.

Ng’s trial could last up to six weeks.