[UPDATED] 1MDB trial: US$1 bil transferred out of M’sia ‘overnight’, Leissner testifies

KUALA LUMPUR – Some US$1 billion (RM4.19 billion) was transferred out of Malaysia “overnight” without any rigorous process by Malaysia’s federal bank, as the husband of then Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz had received a bribe, former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner told the court.

While testifying in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial in the United States, Leissner said his former colleague Roger Ng, who is at the centre of the ongoing trial, had informed him sometime in 2009 that the funds had left the country in the short period.

This came amid a joint venture between 1MDB and oil and gas company PetroSaudi International Ltd, with the foreign exchange business being mediated by Goldman Sachs.

“A billion dollars was wired overnight to Malaysia to the joint venture and that (Ng told me) that it had been done because the husband of the then governor Zeti at Bank Negara had received a bribe to make that happen,” Leissner said in a court transcript dated February 22.

“So, overnight that money was transferred, which was unprecedented at that time. No approval was obtained that quickly with Bank Negara.”

Last year, Zeti was urged to break her “elegant silence” on the revelation that 1MDB-linked funds had been repatriated from a company in Singapore owned by her husband.

They said the investigation must include focus on Zeti and current Governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, particularly on whether they were aware of the funds being under the firm, Cutting Edge Industries Ltd.

According to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Cutting Edge is owned by Zeti’s husband, Datuk Tawfiq Ayman, and Samuel Goh.

Meanwhile, the trial turned salacious after Leissner revealed having an affair with Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd former CEO Rohana Rozhan and the US$10 million home he gifted her.

He alleged that he bought her a US$10 million home in London in 2013 after she had threatened to expose his involvement with 1MDB and that the relationship was from 2003 to 2013, reported Bloomberg.

Leissner said at the time of the dealings, Ng had informed him of 1MDB setting up the billion-dollar tie up with PetroSaudi.

He added that he and Ng had discussed the matter at their office with a person named Dr Heuchling, which he believed was the Goldman Sachs chairman in Malaysia, on the potential foreign exchange business.

“That would have been maybe not as an attractive business, but it was still attractive not for us to want to do that,” Leissner testified.

He said when 1MDB made the investment, Ng told him how the state-owned company invested the money.

“You have to understand in 2009, Malaysia still had capital controls in place, which would require an investment of that size to be approved by Bank Negara in terms of the money leaving the country.”

Leissner is the prosecution’s star witness in the criminal trial involving Ng. Leissner also pleaded guilty in 2018 to a count of conspiracy to violate US anti-bribery laws and to conspiring to launder money.

Ng is the only former Goldman banker to go on trial for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal. 

Leissner also testified that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, made a list of people in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi who needed to be bribed to ensure that the 1MDB plan was approved. Among the names in his testimony were former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour.

In an earlier testimony, Leissner also dropped a bombshell revelation on Najib, who allegedly wanted to secure jobs for his three children with Goldman.

Leissner, 52, testified that his ex-boss Lloyd Blankfein’s meeting with Najib in 2009 came with an agenda and it took place before the bank’s mega bond deals for 1MDB.

He added that he was told by Ng that Najib would be in New York to visit his children for the Thanksgiving holiday.

He alleged Low said it would be good for Blankfein and Najib to meet.

Ng, 49, is facing accusations of pocketing millions of dollars in kickbacks in the 1MDB deal, with allegations of money laundering and violating anti-bribery laws.

Low was charged in the US in 2018; however, he remains a fugitive. – The Vibes, February 23, 2022