Malaysia 1MDB scandal: US$5 million in assets recouped after ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng’s trial

Malaysian authorities are counting on the convicted former banker Roger Ng’s cooperation to recover as much as possible from the billions looted from the fund
Malaysian and US investigators estimate US$4.5 billion were stolen from 1MDB, implicating former Malaysian PM Najib Razak, and Goldman Sachs staff

Malaysia 1MDB scandal

BloombergandReuters

Published: 5:09pm, 8 Feb 2024

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Malaysia said it has recovered 23.9 million ringgit (US$5 million) worth of assets related to troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB) following former Goldman Sachs Inc. banker Roger Ng’s trial in the US.

The money and assets, including properties, were forfeited or surrendered by two officers who worked under former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, a former 1MDB official and two persons connected to fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement.

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Malaysian authorities are counting on the convicted former Goldman banker’s cooperation to recover as much as possible from the billions looted from the fund. Ng was scheduled to begin a 10-year prison sentence in October last year, but US officials allowed the sentence to be deferred so that he could return to the Southeast Asian country and help with its investigation.

Najib’s special officer, Amhari Efendi, surrendered about 4.6 million ringgit to the government through BSI Bank Switzerland, according to the anti-corruption body. Authorities also confiscated three condominiums worth almost 7.1 million ringgit from another special officer Mohammad Kamal Yan Yahaya, the agency said.

Since 2019, the Malaysian government said it has recouped 29 billion ringgit of assets that disappeared from 1MDB.

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The anti-corruption body said it had also obtained court orders to forfeit properties belonging to Low’s associates Jerome Lee and his wife Koay Ying Ying in Malaysia and Singapore that are worth 11.8 million ringgit.

Malaysian and US investigators estimate US$4.5 billion were stolen from 1MDB, implicating ex-PM Najib Razak, Goldman Sachs staff and high-level officials elsewhere.

Najib was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted in a case linked to the 1MDB scandal, but had his sentence halved last week by a Malaysian pardons board.

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