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Senior Goldman staff knew about Jho Low in 1MDB, Leissner testifies in Roger Ng’s trial

Senior executives at Goldman Sachs Group knew that financier Jho Low was involved in transactions related to Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, former star banker Tim Leissner testified.

Leissner, who took the stand for the first time on Feb 16 as the US government’s key witness in the federal bribery trial of his former subordinate Roger Ng, described his role in the multibillion-dollar scandal. He told jurors in a Brooklyn, New York courtroom that he and Ng “and our colleagues knew that Jho Low was the key decision-maker, so therefore we had to include Jho Low as well” in all major aspects of the lucrative 1MDB transactions.

Leissner, 52, said that while he and Ng concealed from Goldman compliance officials Low’s efforts and the bribes they paid to get the business, other Goldman colleagues knew about Low’s involvement. He also named for the jury his own boss at the time — then Asia chairman Michael Evans — and several other former executives of the bank. Leissner said Evans went with him to visit 1MDB executives after Goldman earned US$220 million ($295 million) in the first bond transaction, known as Magnolia, and that Evans thanked the CEO of 1MDB at the time for using Goldman. “Don’t thank me,” Leissner said the CEO responded. “Thank Jho Low.”

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Leissner continued: “So Mike knew from that moment” and added, “Mike asked me during Magnolia if Jho was involved and I lied outright and I said no.”

He also named Andrea Vella, a former cohead of investment banking in Asia, adding he discussed the bribes and kickbacks with Vella. “I trusted him and he trusted me, and it was one of those things crucial to making transactions happen,” he testified. Leissner also told the jury that former executives Toby Watson and John Donne also knew Low was involved.

Michael Evans, now president of Alibaba Group, did not immediately respond to an email sent after business hours seeking comment on Leissner’s testimony. Meanwhile, Goldman spokeswoman Maeve DuVally declined to comment on Leissner’s testimony about his former colleagues.

It has been almost four years since Leissner pleaded guilty to his role in the fraud that stretched from Asia to Wall Street. The 1MDB affair included investigations in Asia, the US and Europe and led to the ouster of former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2018.

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Authorities spent years tracking about US$4.5 billion that was allegedly syphoned from 1MDB and flowed into high-end art, real estate and a super yacht and helped fund the 2013 Martin Scorsese directed movie The Wolf of Wall Street, which chronicled an earlier era of financial crimes.

Prosecutors claim Ng conspired to circumvent Goldman’s internal controls and engaged in the money-laundering plot with Leissner, who they say paid him US$35 million to take part in the scheme. Ng’s lawyers have argued that he played no role in it and that Leissner misled Goldman compliance officials about Low’s involvement in the 1MDB bond transactions.

Leissner pleaded guilty in August 2018 to conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and launder money. He admitted to bribing officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to get bond deals for Goldman. He was ordered to forfeit US$44 million.

In opening statements on Feb 14, Ng’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo assailed Leissner’s credibility and argued he was a “double bigamist” who was testifying for the US only to save himself.

Goldman Sachs in 2020 agreed to pay more than US$5 billion — including a record US$2.3 billion fine in the US — and entered its first-ever guilty plea for its role in the scandal. The bank got a deferred-prosecution agreement while its Malaysian unit pleaded guilty.

Leissner faces the possibility of decades in prison when he is sentenced this year. — Bloomberg

Singapore eyes major easing of curbs once virus wave passes

To stay ahead of Singapore and the region’s corporate and economic trends, <a class='gtm_see_also_3_inread' style='text-decoration: underline;' href='/news/markets/lion-ocbc-china-leaders-etf-declares-first-dividend-33-cents-share?utm_source=website&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=ONPAGESEO'>click here for Latest Section</a>

Singapore plans to substantially ease travel and social restrictions once the current wave of Covid-19 infections peaks amid mounting evidence that the omicron variant is less threatening than its predecessors.

The government will restore and progressively raise quotas on so-called vaccinated travel lanes, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Feb 16. Visitors entering the city-state via these vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs) from Feb 22 will not need to take a polymerase chain reaction test upon arrival and can take a supervised self-swab instead.

This will pave the way for potentially allowing quarantine-free travel for anyone who is vaccinated once infections have peaked, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung told reporters. The limit on the number of people allowed to dine together in restaurants could be lifted to eight or more from five now once the Omicron wave has passed.

Singapore has sought to revive its air hub status with quarantine-free travel agreements with two dozen countries. New VTL flights with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will start on Feb 25, while travellers from Israel and the Philippines can enter on or after March 4.

Travellers from Hong Kong will now have to be fully-vaccinated to be able to enter Singapore quarantine-free, according to a separate statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore. — Bloomberg

Hong Kong to mass test whole city for Covid-19

Hong Kong is stepping up efforts to root out Covid-19 cases, with plans to mass test the entire city and fine those who refuse, according to local media, deploying tactics used on the mainland as the financial hub faces its most challenging outbreak yet.

Chinese medical workers will be brought in to test one million residents a day, with those who resist subject to a HK$10,000 ($1,723) fine, Sing Tao Daily said late Feb 16, citing people it did not identify. Hong Kong-based online news portal HK01 said the citywide testing will begin in early March and be conducted once a week for three weeks, though Hong Kong and the mainland are still discussing details, according to the report.

A representative from the Hong Kong government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Outbreaks on the mainland have been successfully contained through frequent and mass testing, but China has never used the measure in an outbreak of this size. It is unclear where Hong Kong, which is currently struggling to find more isolation and quarantine units, would house those who test positive, even as the city insists on its pursuit of Covid Zero.

President Xi Jinping has called for the city of about 7.5 million people to take “all necessary measures” to contain Covid-19, as the widening outbreak — which came after months of being virus-free — undermines China’s zero-tolerance approach to keeping the pathogen out.

It would be the first time since the pandemic began that Hong Kong has enforced citywide testing, with the more contagious omicron variant providing the steepest challenge yet to maintaining the Covid Zero strategy. Hong Kong’s infections tally continues to set records, with 4,285 new cases on Feb 16, as well as 7,000 preliminary infections. The latter figure reflects specimens that are awaiting a second confirmatory test.

“There’s a lot of worry about the lack of competence, the lack of preparation of this government — there’s a lack of hospital beds, and people are having to wait up for days to be contacted if they’re positive,” says Joseph Cheng, a retired political science professor and veteran democracy activist, who left the city for Australia when China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, adding that “the majority of the people are willing to cooperate.”

“They are pragmatic, they are practical,” he continues. “If tests are made compulsory, they’ll be willing to accept that. They just want to be able to go back to work. Hong Kong people will grumble a lot, but most people will still go and queue up.” — Bloomberg

Photo of Leissner (centre): Bloomberg

Briefs: Senior Goldman staff knew about Jho Low in 1MDB and other news this week

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