KUALA LUMPUR – Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng could be off the hook after United States prosecutors admitted to not providing his defence team more than 15,000 documents.
Ng’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo was reported as saying that some of the evidence he has reviewed so far could be used against allegations Tim Leissner made.
Leissner, who was Ng’s boss at the time, alleged that he paid his subordinate US$35 million for his involvement in the 1MDB financial scandal.
He is also the prosecution’s star witness.
Agnifilo said the evidence supports the defence’s claims that the “money was transferred from Leissner’s wife to Ng’s wife for a separate business transaction”.
He also told the judge that he may apply for a mistrial, slamming the prosecutors’ “slow-walking” evidence over at least two and a half years.
“The government absolutely did not live up to its obligation. This is a categorically serious failure. This is unforgivable.
“In the middle of the night we got a letter from the government describing by its own admission an ‘inexcusable’ discovery disclosure,” Agnifilo was quoted as saying to US district judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York.
Brodie has since postponed the trial to allow the defence to review the documents.
In a letter to the court, prosecutors admitted they failed to share the evidence related to its star witness Leissner, who was Ng’s boss at the investment bank.
Bloomberg reported that prosecutor Alixandra Smith said in the letter that the error “is inexcusable”.
Such disclosure bungles are not new, as in September 2020 prosecutors in the Manhattan federal court were told off for failing to turn over evidence in a case involving sanctions.
US district judge Alison Nathan had said there were “serious and pervasive issues” involving disclosure by government prosecutors.
Yesterday, Leissner created a stir when he testified to having an affair with former Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd CEO Rohana Rozhan and gifting her a US$10 million (RM41.85 million) home.
He alleged that he bought her the 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. – The Vibes, February 24, 2022
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