No conspiracy with Najib in Roger Ng's US 1MDB-related charges, court hears

Malaysian Reserve

24-04-2025

By FARAH SOLHI
NONE of the three criminal charges levelled against Goldman Sachs former managing director Roger Ng Chong Hwa in the United States (US) courts regarding 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) case involved him conspiring with Datuk Seri Najib Razak, court heard on Thursday.
The claim was expressed by Ng during his examination by Najib's lead defence counsel Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah this morning.
Ng also agreed with Shafee's questions that apart from him, former Goldman Sachs' participating managing director Tim Leissner and fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho (Jho Low) were separately charged in the same court, where they were accused of conspiring to launder and misappropriated funds from 1MDB.
Shafee: Were you, or any one of you, charged of being in conspiracy with Najib in the charge?
Ng: I don't believe so.
Shafee: In the course of your defence (in the US trial), through your lawyers, you have blamed Leissner very, very much in the transactions
Ng: Yes
Shafee: And you have also blamed rather heavily, as expected, Jho Low
Ng: Yes
The trial took a momentarily heated turn when Ng used the Protection Order issued against him by Eastern District of New York court, in responding to several of Shafee's questions including if Ng had given any statement to authorities upon his return in 2023, in assisting their investigation into 1MDB.
It prompted deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Akram Gharib to stand up and questioned the relevancy of Shafee's question to the case.
'At this stage, I have to object (because) this is a trial against Najib – I don't see the relevancy on how and why (Ng coming back to Malaysia) and whatnot – to this case.
'This fishing expedition that has been going on is far too much already. It goes to the boundary of this Protective Order so I think because of the irrelevance of the questions, it should be stopped here at this stage.'
Shafee responded to Akram's objection by saying that the defence team is trying to show that Ng gave lengthy statements to authorities despite the order is already in force.
Prior to Akram's objection, the presiding judge Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequerah said Ng still has the right to answer or invoke the order while the latter is on the stand, despite his ruling yesterday – which say Malaysian courts are not bound to follow US courts orders.
In March 2023, US federal court sentenced Ng to 10 years after a jury found him guilty for conspiring to launder funds from 1MDB, conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying more than $1.6 billion (RM7.018 billion) in bribes to a dozen government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi as well as violating FCPA by circumventing the internal accounting controls of Goldman Sachs.
Ng was repatriated to Malaysia in October the same year to assist authorities in ongoing 1MDB investigations.
The trial is now hearing Najib's defence, after High Court ordered him, in October 2024, to defend himself against all 25 charges of abuse of power and money laundering involving 1MDB funds
Najib is currently serving his sentence in Kajang Prison, Selangor, after the Federal Court upheld the Kuala Lumpur High Court's conviction for corruption involving RM42 million in funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former subsidiary of 1MDB.