KUALA LUMPUR – Although US prosecutors sought to cast doubt over Lim Hwee Bin’s testimony on behalf of her husband Roger Ng, she is adamant that “the truth itself will save him” and “he doesn’t need me to do anything”.
During the second day of cross-examination at the Brooklyn court, Lim quashed the prosecutor’s suggestion that her testimony was an effort to protect Ng – the only Goldman Sachs banker to face trial over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal.
“No, I don’t need to protect Roger. I wouldn’t want to see him convicted for a crime. The truth itself will save him. He doesn’t need me to do anything,” she was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
Prosecutor Alixandra Smith also asked Lim about a June 2018 article published by a Singapore daily on Malaysian officials who were about to arrest Ng and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho.
“Was that upsetting for you?” Smith asked.
“I wouldn’t use the word ‘upset,’ but it was pretty irritating to have his name come up,” Lim said.
Earlier, Smith pressed Lim over claims that she invested US$6 million (RM25.2 million) in the mid-2000s in a company owned by the family of Tim Leissner’s then wife Judy Chan.
Lim had testified that she got some US$35 million in 2012 and 2013 as a return on the investment she made in the mid-2000s.
But Leissner, in his witness testimony, alleged that he concocted this “cover story” with former subordinate Ng and their wives to justify the US$35 million in funds.
Despite denying that the money was linked to the 1MDB scandal, Lim yesterday told Smith that she does not have the two-page agreement she signed with Chan nor written updates on investment.
Smith then grilled Lim over that lack of documents and records despite her training as a corporate lawyer.
“For investment in China, there’s no point for you to have documents. Where do I go to enforce it?” said Lim.
Lim is the last defence witness.
After the defence rests, prosecutors called two FBI officers as rebuttal witnesses.
According to the Bloomberg report, one of them did a financial analysis designed to refute Lim’s claims that an initial investment of US$830,000, made in 1998, grew by 2005 to the US$34.9 million she said she earned.
The trial resumes Monday, where prosecutors are expected to rest before the jury hears closing arguments from both sides.
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.
Ng, who worked under Leissner, was charged in the federal court in New York in 2018 for bribery and laundering money siphoned from 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.
Leissner, who is a former partner at investment and financial firm Goldman Sachs, had pleaded guilty in 2018 for his involvement in the financial scandal. The company reached a deal with the United States Justice Department to pay more than US$2 billion for its role.
Last month, Leissner had told the court that it was “greed and ambition” that motivated his involvement in the 1MDB deal.
He said bringing 1MDB’s multi-million-dollar deal with the US investment bank “instantaneously made us heroes”.
He alleged that Ng had in 2008 fostered a relationship with Low, who was then the intermediary between Goldman and 1MDB, Reuters reported.
It later led to Goldman Sachs selling US$6.5 billion in bonds for 1MDB and making US$600 million in fees. – The Vibes, March 31, 2022
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