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MAS imposes lifetime ban on ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng over 1MDB money laundering

2023-09-08 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-新加坡原网页

SINGAPORE – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Tuesday issued lifetime prohibition orders (POs) against former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, after his conviction in the United States for money laundering offences tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) funds.

The POs, which took effect on Tuesday, permanently bar Ng from performing any regulated activities under the Securities and Futures Act or providing financial advice under the Financial Advisers Act.

Both Acts prohibit the Malaysian, also known as Ng Chong Hwa, from managing, acting as a director of, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any capital market and financial advisory services firm.

Ng was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a New York court in March. He was found guilty of conspiring with his former Goldman boss Tim Leissner and Malaysian financier Jho Low in the multibillion-dollar scandal involving 1MDB, the now-defunct Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

US prosecutors said Ng received millions of dollars in kickbacks from three bond deals Goldman Sachs arranged for 1MDB. A US court in April 2022 found him guilty of two counts of conspiracy to violate the US’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and one count of committing money laundering between 2009 and 2014.

An MAS statement said Ng’s “severe misconduct” has led Singapore’s central bank to believe that it would be “contrary to public interest” to allow him to conduct business in the Republic.

He was Goldman’s head of South-east Asia sales and trading when he resigned in 2014, and was said by US prosecutors to have been a “central player” in a scheme that misappropriated, then laundered, 1MDB funds.

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Ng and his family in 2018 reportedly agreed to surrender about $40 million to the authorities in Singapore, who would later repatriate the funds to Malaysia.

In August, he was granted a last-minute delay in serving his jail term, which he was meant to begin on Aug 7. The delay was to allow for talks between Washington and Putrajaya with a view to letting him return to Malaysia to assist in 1MDB investigations.

Leissner, who was Goldman’s former South-east Asia chief, pleaded guilty and testified against Ng as part of a cooperation agreement with US Department of Justice prosecutors. Out on US$20 million (S$27.2 million) bail since 2018, Leissner’s sentencing is set for Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.

MAS issued a lifetime PO against Leissner, an American, in December 2018, an extended ban after he was first given a 10-year PO in 2017 for making fraudulent statements on behalf of Goldman Sachs that were tied to the 1MDB fraud.

Low, the suspected mastermind of the scandal, is still at large.