Goldman Banker Convicted in 1MDB Scandal

The former head of Goldman Sachs in Malaysia, Robert Ng, has been convicted of money laundering and bribery for his part in a multibillion scheme to plunder the Malaysian state investment fund known as 1MDB.

🏦 Background: The charges stemmed from bond deals that Goldman helped arrange in 2012 and 2013 to raise $6.5 billion for the fund, which was founded to pursue public development projects in the Southeast Asian country.

• But more than $4 billion was stolen and diverted to government officials, bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks between 2009 and 2015.

💰 The money was used…

• To buy a $250 million yacht,
• Luxury real estate, jewels, art
• And partly finance The Wolf of Wall Street (you could say it went from 1MDB → IMDb😉)

💸🇺🇸🇲🇾 Zoom out: Goldman has paid more than $5 billion in penalties to the US and Malaysia, yanked compensation from some top execs and admitted that a subsidiary broke US corruption laws. Its board called the matter an “institutional failure.”

🔎 Zoom in: Prosecutors said Ng helped his former boss at the bank, Tim Leissner, embezzle cash from the fund, launder the proceeds and bribe officials to win business for Goldman. Leissner pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2018.

• The heist’s alleged mastermind, Jho Low (aka “The Asian Great Gatsby”), remains on the loose.