A former Goldman Sachs executive convicted in the United States in the multibillion-dollar plunder of a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund has returned to Malaysia to assist in asset recovery efforts, officials said Monday. .
Home Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution said Roger Ng Chong-fa had been in police custody since arriving in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend.
Ng, a Malaysian, was convicted by a jury in federal district court in Brooklyn last year and sentenced to 10 years in prison in March.
Prosecutors said Ng and his co-conspirators helped a Malaysian fund known as 1MDB raise $6.5 billion through bond sales, but siphoned off more than two-thirds of that money and said he participated in a scheme that was only used to pay bribes. And rebates.
Ng denies charges of conspiring to launder money and violating two anti-bribery laws.
“We still have unfinished business,” Saifuddin told reporters. “The main purpose of bringing him back is to see how he can support our efforts to take back assets that belong to the people.”
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government, which took office in November last year, is calling for a review of the previous government’s 2020 settlement proposal with Goldman Sachs, saying it was too lenient.
The deal calls for Goldman to pay $2.5 billion and guarantee the return of $1.4 billion in seized 1MDB assets in exchange for Malaysia dropping charges against the bank.
Saifuddin said police would continue investigating Ng, who is also facing corruption charges in Malaysia. He said there is no deadline for Ng to be returned to the United States, where his sentence has been suspended out of consideration for Malaysia.
Police declined to say where Ng was being held, citing security reasons.
The theft and attempted cover-up of 1MDB upset the country’s government at the time. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak lost a landslide in the 2018 general election and was sentenced to 12 years in prison starting last year after losing his appeal in the first of several trials related to the 1MDB scandal.
The scandal spread to Hollywood, where some of the stolen money was used to finance lavish parties, superyachts, luxury real estate and even the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street. Malaysian investor Low Taek Jaw, who is accused of being the architect of the scheme, remains an international fugitive.
Mr. Ng’s lawyer said he was Mr. Lo’s mastermind and that fellow Goldman Sachs bankers were also charged in the scheme. Ng’s former boss at Goldman Sachs, Tim Riesner, pleaded guilty in 2018 to bribing government officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. He was ordered to pay $43.7 million and was the government’s key witness in Ng’s two-month trial.
Mr. Ng, whose company oversees investment banking operations in Malaysia, said Mr. Reissner had suggested he receive a lenient punishment during his sentencing. Mr. Reisner has not yet been sentenced.
