NEW YORK: Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng’s wife “played a central and crucial role” in helping her husband launder the illicit payments from a trio of bond deals that Goldman Sachs engineered for 1MDB, the court heard.
Ng’s wife, Lim Hwee Bin, created a shell company and opened a bank account that prosecutors said she used to help launder tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.
According to Bloomberg, jurors at Ng’s bribery trial were shown a raft of emails on Monday that the US said was proof of her role. Lim was not charged.
Ng is accused of conspiring with his former boss, Tim Leissner, to help Low siphon billions of dollars from the deals.
He is the only Goldman Sachs banker to go on trial in the scandal.
Leissner has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government against Ng. Low has also been charged in absentia.
A day before the first 1MDB bond deal closed, Lim inquired about creating the shell entity, Sean Fern, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified on Monday.
The company, initially named Silken Waters and later renamed Victoria Square, was opened, along with a bank account, at UBS Group AG, just days after the bond deal closed, Fern said.
While Lim’s mother, Tan Kim Chin, was listed as the beneficial owner of the shell company, Fern said he had traced emails showing that bankers communicated with Lim about Victoria Square and the UBS account.
Prosecutors say that for the first US$1.75bil bond transaction, called Project Magnolia, Low and his associates siphoned at least US$500mil (RM2,1bil), using a shell entity they created called Aabar PJS Limited in the British Virgin Islands.
Leissner said he received more than US$60mil from Low, into accounts controlled by his then wife, Judy Chan Leissner.
Using Chan’s accounts, he said, he sent Ng US$35.1mil through the entity set up by Lim.
Ng has argued that Chan sent the money to Lim for an unrelated business transaction.
His lawyers said they intend to call up Lim to testify for her husband.
The hearing continues.