The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday (Sep 5) issued lifetime prohibition orders against former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, after his conviction for helping launder billions of dollars embezzled from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia was sentenced by a US court in March to 10 years in prison.
The court found that sometime between 2009 and 2014, Ng conspired with others, including his former boss Tim Leissner, to launder billions of dollars misappropriated from 1MDB, which was founded to finance development projects in Malaysia. These include funds raised by 1MDB through three bond offering transactions underwritten by Goldman Sachs and its subsidiaries and affiliates, MAS said.
Leissner, formerly Goldman’s Southeast Asia chief, was also given a lifetime MAS prohibition order in 2018.
Under the prohibition orders, which took effect from Tuesday, Ng, a Malaysian citizen, is banned from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act and from providing any financial advisory services under the Financial Advisers Act.
He will also be permanently prohibited from taking part in the management – such as by acting as a director or becoming a substantial shareholder – of any capital market and financial advisory services firm, said MAS on Tuesday, adding that Ng had also violated the United States’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
As part of the scheme, Ng and his co-conspirators bribed government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain and retain business from 1MDB, MAS noted.
They also conspired to circumvent Goldman Sach’s internal accounting controls in connection with the three bond offering transactions and other 1MDB business.
“Ng’s severe misconduct has given MAS reason to believe that it would be contrary to public interest to allow him to carry on business as a representative,” the Singapore regulator said.
Goldman helped 1MDB, which was founded to finance development projects in Malaysia, sell some US$6.5 billion in bonds in 2012 and 2013.
US prosecutors said US$4.5 billion of that sum was embezzled by officials, bankers and their associates, in one of the biggest scandals in Wall Street history.
Funds were used to buy high-end real estate, jewellery and artwork, and finance the Hollywood film, The Wolf of Wall Street, according to the Department of Justice.
The 1MDB scandal has rocked Malaysian politics. Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serving a 12-year prison sentence after being convicted by a Malaysian court of receiving US$10 million from a former 1MDB unit. Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Since his sentencing in early March, Ng has succeeded in securing deferments from the US courts to the start of his jail term, which was originally set to begin on May 4.
He was granted a three-month suspension after requesting more time to spend with his daughter whom he had not seen in four years.
Ng then secured another one-month extension to an Aug 7 deadline to begin his jailed term, when the court was informed of ongoing negotiations between the Malaysian and US government over Kuala Lumpur’s request for custody.
He is currently on bail in the US and is due to surrender to the authorities sometime in the first week of September to begin serving his jail sentence.
