CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Ex-Goldman Banker Ordered to Forfeit $43.7 Million Over 1MDB Bribery Fraud

Patricia Hurtado
Fri, March 3, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Tim Leissner, who pleaded guilty to participating in the massive 1MDB foreign bribery fraud, was ordered to forfeit $43.7 million in cash as well as all 3.3 million shares in fitness drink company Celsius Holdings Inc.

US District Judge Margo Brodie on Friday ordered Leissner to surrender the assets as part of his earlier guilty plea to foreign bribery and money-laundering charges related to the 1MDB scandal. Leissner has been free on $20 million bail since his arrest in June 2018. He pleaded guilty in August 2018 and was the government’s star witness against his former Goldman colleague Roger Ng.

The forfeiture order comes the same day the government is set to issue a sentencing recommendation for Ng. Ahead of the full recommendation, the US on Friday asked Brodie to order Ng to forfeit $35.1 million.

Henry Mazurek, a lawyer for Leissner, declined to comment on the judge’s order about his client. Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Ng, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The US said that both Leissner, Goldman’s former Southeast Asia head, and Ng conspired with financier Jho Low, the alleged mastermind of the sprawling fraud scheme, to bribe officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to facilitate bond deals. Ng, 51, the only Goldman employee to go to trial over the multibillion-dollar looting, was convicted by a federal jury in April of three felony counts, including conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and conspiring to launder money.

Ng is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9.

Ownership of the Celsius shares remains in dispute. Ng sued Leissner in New York state court in November, alleging his ex-boss cheated him out of an investment worth at least $130 million. Ng alleged that Leissner took his original $1.25 million investment in Celsius, has since grown in value enormously. That case is still pending.

Brodie said in her Friday order that the Celsius shares were being held at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. account in the name of Leissner’s former wife, Kimora Lee Simmons. The judge said anyone who asserts a legal interest in the Celsius shares may file a petition with the court.

Low stole $1.42 billion from three bond transactions that Goldman arranged for 1MDB, according to a forensic accountant with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who testified at Ng’s trial. The US said evidence showed Ng collected $35.1 million in the fraud while Leissner received $73.4 million. Low remains a fugitive.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak reaped $756 million of the $6.5 billion raised in the bond offerings, while his stepson, Riza Aziz, pocketed $238 million, the US said. Aziz used at least $60 million of his 1MDB money to produce The Wolf of Wall Street, according to prosecutors.

Leissner testified at the trial that, as part of his guilty plea, he had agreed to surrender a stake in Celsius he estimated was now worth about $200 million and had previously posted 3.25 million shares in Celsius as collateral to secure his bond.

During his time on the witness stand he admitted to faking divorce documents, creating phony email accounts, marrying multiple women at the same time and keeping money that wasn’t his.

The case is US v. Leissner, 18-cr-439, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).