The ongoing embezzlement trial of ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng took one other unusual flip this week after the prosecution’s star witness, Tim Leissner, detailed his extramarital affairs – together with one the place a mistress purportedly blackmailed him into shopping for her a $10 million mansion.
Leissner, a former Goldman government, is testifying towards Ng, who faces federal fees over his alleged position in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal. Whereas on the stand, Leissner admitted to prosecutors that he has had a number of affairs.
One among his entanglements was a decade-long relationship with Rohana Rozhan, a media government and former CEO of Astro Malaysia Holdings. Leissner mentioned he used cash siphoned from the 1MDB fund to purchase Rozhan a $10 million home after she threatened to disclose his involvement in criminal activity following their breakup.
“Ms. Rozhan was very upset that I used to be ending our relationship to be with my future spouse, with Kimora,” Leissner mentioned on the stand, referencing his estranged spouse, style mannequin and actuality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons.
“If I didn’t purchase her a home, she would inform the authorities about my involvement within the 1MDB scandal. She was threatening to show me. On the time, 2013, I used to be very frightened of that,” Leissner added, in line with Bloomberg.
Leissner testified that he knowledgeable Richard Gnodde, the then-chief of Goldman Sachs’ Asia enterprise, of his relationship with Rozhan. He admitted to persevering with the connection regardless of Gnodde’s warnings to “watch out” as a result of Rozhan’s firm was a consumer.
Leissner mentioned the connection was an open secret amongst Goldman Sachs staff within the area.
“Just about everyone in our Southeast Asia territory knew it,” Leissner added.
Gnodde, Rozhan and Astro Malaysia Holdings didn't reply to Bloomberg’s request for touch upon Leissner’s testimony. Rozhan left Astro in 2019.
Goldman Sachs declined touch upon Leissner’s remarks.
Leissner’s private life has been below intense scrutiny throughout Ng’s trial. Earlier this month, Ng’s protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo referred to Leissner as a “double bigamist” who has been “married to 2 totally different girls on the similar time, twice.”
The protection lawyer argued Leissner “makes use of girls, he makes use of false intimacy, and now he’s attempting to make use of my consumer to get him to do his jail time.”
Leissner, a former associate for Goldman Sachs’ Asia division, beforehand pleaded responsible to fees of conspiracy to launder cash and conspiracy to violate the International Corrupt Practices Act. He agreed to forfeit $43.7 million and shall be sentenced later this 12 months.
In the meantime, Ng, Goldman’s former head of funding banking in Malaysia, faces federal fees of conspiracy to launder cash and violate US anti-bribery legal guidelines. He's accused of taking part in a scheme to loot billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign growth fund.
Ng has pleaded not responsible to the fees.
Post a Comment