KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's defence team plans to file an application to interview convicted former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng Chong Hwa.

Lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah informed the court during Monday's afternoon session of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd-Tanore (1MDB-Tanore) trial that he would mull over the application and maybe file it on Tuesday.

Ng, Goldman Sachs’ former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is the only person from the investment bank to have gone to trial over the 1MDB scandal.

The star witness in Ng’s trial was his ex-boss, former Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner. Najib's defence team has often cited Leissner's testimony, along with other proceedings in Ng's New York trial, to buttress their arguments.

More recently, Najib claimed that Goldman Sachs and Leissner were in possession of court evidence that could exonerate him or assist in his defence. He claimed that there were various conspiracies which led to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) preventing him from accessing the documents.

In April 2022, an American jury had found Ng guilty of two counts of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to 1MDB, by bribing government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, through bond offerings that Goldman Sachs handled.

In the trial that spanned almost two months, Ng was also convicted on a charge of conspiring to launder money.

The former banker had pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers have said that he would be appealing against the decision.

In March 2023, he was given a 10-year jail sentence.

In October 2023, Ng returned to Malaysia. This was confirmed by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution, who said that Ng would be assisting the Malaysian authorities with 1MDB investigations and asset recovery.

Saifuddin also said that Ng was in police custody, and that there was no fixed timeline for the investigations.

Separately, in January 2023, Ng was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal by the Malaysian High Court for his charges under the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007 (CMSA).

Ng was charged in 2018 with four counts of violating the CMSA, namely in abetting Goldman Sachs in the sale of notes and bonds belonging to 1MDB subsidiaries by omitting material information and publishing untrue statements.

The charges were framed under Section 370(c) of the CMSA, which carries a punishment of up to 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of at least RM1 million, upon conviction.

Among material facts allegedly omitted in these bond issuances was the fact that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) was the principal controller and intermediary of 1MDB.

Although Ng was charged with abetment with Goldman Sachs, the charge against the US financial institution was dropped in September 2020, after it agreed to a US$2.5 billion financial settlement with Malaysia.  

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/node/737053