Former Goldman Sachs banker to stand trial over 1MDB scandal

Former Goldman Sachs banker to stand trial over 1MDB scandal

A former Goldman Sachs banker charged in connection with the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal will stand trial in New York on Monday, more than three years after his arrest.

Roger Ng, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, was arrested in Malaysia in 2018 at the request of US authorities and charged with conspiring to bribe officials and launder billions of dollars from the Malaysian state investment fund. He was later sent back to the US to face the charges.

Opening arguments are scheduled to take place in a US federal court in Brooklyn. Ng, 49, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison.

The trial, which was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has renewed attention on a global scandal that has reached from Malaysia to Switzerland and the US, with American officials labelling it “kleptocracy at its worst”.

The Department of Justice alleges a total of $4.5bn was misappropriated from 1MDB, an investment fund set up by the Malaysian government in 2009 to further the south-east Asian country’s development via partnerships and foreign direct investment.

Prosecutors said money looted from the fund was used to buy a 22-carat pink diamond, luxury property and finance the Oscar-nominated film The