KUALA LUMPUR – Fugitive Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho had arranged with New York jeweller Lorraine Schwartz to create a US$23 million (RM97.3 million) pink diamond necklace for Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, prosecutors in the trial of former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng told a New York court.
Ng, 47, was charged in the federal court in New York in 2018 for bribery and laundering money siphoned from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) during his time as Goldman Sachs’ head of investment banking in Malaysia and faces up to 20 years jail if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
Low – better known as Jho Low – was jointly charged in absentia for fraud.
Prosecutors in Ng’s trial produced an invoice detailing Low’s request in June 2013 to create the necklace with a heart-shaped gem at its centre, according to a Bloomberg report.
The court was told that Rosmah, the wife of former prime minister Najib Razak, had initially asked for an 18-carat diamond, but it was replaced with a 22-carat pink diamond as it was the only gem Schwartz had available.
Schwartz personally delivered the necklace to Rosmah while she and Low were on a yacht off the coast of Monaco, prosecutors said.
Besides the necklace, Rosmah also purchased US$1.3 million worth of luxury products from Schwartz in 2014.
Schwartz was not called in as a witness but provided a statement to the prosecution.
US and Malaysian officials are on the hunt for Low, who they accuse of being the mastermind in the multi-billion-dollar 1MDB scandal.
Some US$4.5 billion in funds had been stolen from 1MDB, according to US and Malaysian authorities, but Malaysia has said that at least US$4.3 billion more remain unaccounted for.
In 2020, ex-prime minister Najib was sentenced to 12 years’ jail by the Kuala Lumpur High Court for corruption related to a former unit of 1MDB. He currently faces a separate trial on 1MDB.
Rosmah was charged separately in court for alleged corruption in a RM1.25 billion solar hybrid project for 369 rural schools in Sarawak.
Both Najib and Rosmah have denied all wrongdoing. Najib is currently appealing his conviction. – The Vibes, March 24, 2022
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