Jho Low, a fugitive financier, was the alleged mastermind of the Malaysian Wealth fund 1MDB scandal, where $1.42 billion was stolen in three bond transactions arranged by Goldman Sachs. This was testified by an FBI agent who traced the funds.
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As per Bloomberg News, FBI agent Eric Van Dorn took this stand during the trial of Roger Ng, an ex-Goldman Sachs Banker, in Brooklyn federal court. In addition to this testimony, he also told the Court about how Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, made $576 million from the $6.5 billion mobilized in the Bond Offerings. At the same time, Riza Aziz, his stepson, pocketed $238 million.
Ng, who was the only Goldman employee to go to the trial on the epic fraud of the 1MDB, the sovereign wealth fund of Malaysia, was charged with conspiracy with his former boss Tim Leissner and Lows. Leissner is now cooperating with the Lows government after pleading guilty after standing as a star witness of the prosecution. Jho Low is not under custody and continues to be in the run.
According to prosecutors, Low paid bribes to Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials to facilitate the deal, but the testimony from Van Dorn detailed how much was paid to those involved in the IMDB deal.
Van Dorn, who works for the FBI as a forensic accountant, scrutinized about 59,000 bank records to establish where the money from the 1MDB deals went. He said that the former Managing director of the International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), Abu Dhabi State-owned, received about $472.8 million. He also mentioned another Abu Dhabi official of the IPIC subsidiary who received $76.6 million.
According to Van Dorn, Aziz invested about $60 million of this kickback in the production of “The Wolf on Wall Street” movie. As per the prosecutors, Aziz was Low’s friend. Aziz had settled the lawsuits twice over his role in the scandal. His production company, The Red Granite Inc., agreed to pay $60 million as a settlement which was the amount used to finance the movie ‘Wolf”. In 2020, Aziz decided to drop million sofa dollars of claims filed in the U.K. and U.S. real estate in a separate settlement.
Van Dorn testified that Roger Ng received $35.1 million from two bond transactions while Leissner got $73.4 million.
In the 2018 plea, Leissner had offered to forfeit $43.7 million, which he earned from the scheme. It was not clear why a lesser amount was lost.
Najib has been convicted by a court in Malaysia and sentenced to 12 years in prison and is appealing now. On the other hand, Al-Qubaisi was sentenced to serve 15 years in jail and repay $336 million.
