Goldman Accuses 1MDB Banker of ‘Serial Lies’ Ahead of Sentencing

(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. mentioned the banker on the coronary heart of a scandal linked to Malaysia’s 1MDB funding fund engaged in “serial lies” and deception in regards to the fraud, days earlier than he’s scheduled to be sentenced.

In a letter to a US choose, Goldman mentioned that Tim Leissner, the financial institution’s former southeast Asia chairman, has by no means taken duty for his actions within the multibillion-dollar fraud that introduced down the Malaysian authorities. The letter comes after the US authorities requested for leniency when Leissner is sentenced subsequent week.

The financial institution’s basic counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, wrote that Leissner’s try and blame the monetary business for his crimes “denigrates the countless law abiding people who work in it and draws focus for the true motivation for Mr. Leissner’s crimes: greed.”

Leissner, who pleaded responsible in 2018 to his position in looting billions from 1MDB, grew to become the US authorities’s key witness. Prosecutors say his testimony was central to the conviction of one in all his Goldman colleagues and a $2.9 billion positive in opposition to the financial institution, the biggest ever in a international bribery case.

“Leissner spent years using offshore shell companies, personal email accounts and personal devices to engage in crime, evade detection and put Goldman Sachs at risk in the process,” Ruemmler wrote within the letter, filed in Brooklyn, New York, Thursday. 

Leissner, 53, faces as a lot as 25 years in jail after he grew to become the face of the worldwide monetary scandal that led to investigations in six international locations. As a part of the fraud, he admitted that he pocketed $73.4 million from 1MDB and one other $80 million from Jho Low, the fugitive financier who was the architect of the fraud.

Henry Mazurek, Leissner’s lawyer, mentioned that “the chutzpah of Goldman Sachs’s letter to the court today is astounding.”

“Mr. Leissner spent the last several years cooperating with the Department of Justice to expose the corporate culture and institutional greed which fueled the behavior that corrupted the 1MDB project,” Mazurek mentioned in a press release.

Goldman and a spokesman for US prosecutors declined to remark.

Prosecutors mentioned in their very own court docket submitting that Leissner continues to assist with unidentified US investigations into “other crimes,” along with the 1MDB case.

“Leissner provided information concerning the role of powerful individuals in a global scheme to bribe government officials in two countries and divert billions of dollars into bank accounts around the world,” prosecutors mentioned in a submitting earlier this month.

But the financial institution countered that “from Goldman’s perspective, Mr. Leissner’s efforts in this regard are deserving of sanction, not praise.”

In 2020, Goldman, which made $600 million from the 1MDB transactions, entered right into a deferred prosecution settlement with the US and its Malaysian unit pleaded responsible to violating US anti-bribery legal guidelines. The New York-based funding financial institution mentioned within the letter Thursday that it didn’t “adequately address red flags and scrutinize the representations of certain members of the deal team.”

In his personal submitting, Leissner mentioned that he ought to be spared any time in jail. He mentioned that he offered essential proof in opposition to former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Abu Dhabi sheiks and Goldman and gave the US a roadmap to the advanced money-laundering scheme at 1MDB.

“I know how terrible my crime was,” Leissner mentioned in a letter to the choose. “In the process of telling the government and the world about 1MDB, I have had to publicly face the fact that I helped steal billions of dollars not just from individuals, but from an entire nation.”

When he pleaded responsible in August, 2018, Leissner blamed Goldman’s “culture” as enjoying a task within the fraud when he described his crimes.

“During the course of the conspiracy, I conspired with other employees and agents of Goldman Sachs very much in line of its culture of Goldman Sachs to conceal facts from certain compliance and legal employees of Goldman Sachs, including Jho Low,” he mentioned in court docket.

Leissner might nonetheless face authorized actions in Malaysia. The nation’s Home Minister, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, mentioned earlier this month that Malaysia has submitted an extradition request for Leissner’s arrest with the US Justice Department. 

–With help from Anisah Shukry.

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