Ex-Goldman Sachs banker will get 2 years in jail for space to fleece billions from Malaysia’s 1MDB fund
NEW YORK — A venerable Goldman Sachs banker became sentenced Thursday to two years in federal jail for his position in a $4.5 billion arrangement to ransack a Malaysian order funding fund.
Tim Leissner, at his sentencing in Brooklyn federal court docket, apologized to the oldsters of Malaysia, who he known as the “exact victims” of the arrangement.
“The funds raised better than a decade ago would possibly delight in profoundly benefited the nation and its voters,” he talked about in a assertion read in court docket and supplied by his legal professionals. “As a change, on account of my greed — and the greed of those alive to alongside me — they had been misappropriated.”
Prosecutors talked about Leissner and other Goldman Sachs bankers helped the Malaysian funding fund regularly known as 1MDB, or the 1Malaysia Building Berhad order fund, lift $6.5 billion thru bond sales.
However they are saying better than $4.5 billion of the funds had been stolen and laundered thru bribes and kickbacks.
The spoils bankrolled extravagant purchases, from wild parties to lavish spending on jewels, art, a superyacht and luxury exact estate, prosecutors delight in talked about. As well they helped finance the 2013 Martin Scorsese film “The Wolf of Wall Aspect street” that starred Leonardo DiCaprio.
The scandal led to the autumn of Malaysian High Minister Najib Razak’s executive in 2018. Najib became later convicted by a Malaysian court docket of abuse of vitality and other crimes connected to the scandal and sentenced to 12 years in jail.
“What we did became unequivocally unsuitable, and I take hold of paunchy responsibility for my position,” Leissner talked about Thursday. “I deeply remorse my actions, and if I would possibly flip encourage time, I would undo them without hesitation.”
Leissner had pleaded guilty in 2018 to bribing executive officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.
He served as a key executive behold within the trial of Roger Ng, a fellow venerable Goldman Sachs banker who became sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in federal jail.
Ng’s legal professionals described the looting of 1MDB as “perchance the single supreme heist within the historical previous of the sector,” but maintained that prosecutors scapegoated him for crimes committed by others, including the upper-ranking Leissner.
Prosecutors declined to touch upon Thursday’s sentence. They had now not sought a particular jail term in filings sooner than sentencing while legal professionals for Leissner had sought a sentence of time already served.
Leissner is on account of record to jail Sept. 15 and his legal professionals delight in requested that he be despatched to the federal jail in Otisville, New York, in line with the prosecutors.
Henry Mazurek, Leissner’s attorney, talked about his client is prepared to merit his sentence. It involves two years of supervised open after jail and a forfeiture totaling $43.7 million, which already has been paid to Malaysia, he talked about.
“Mr. Leissner cooperated now not supreme to invent leniency at sentencing, but to present his fine remorse for his actions and order the paunchy memoir of 1MDB and Goldman Sachs,” Mazurek talked about in an electronic mail. “He did that and can continue to express all who will hear about the toxic culture at Goldman that impressed the 1MDB arrangement.”
The Associated Press
The Associated Press
