Najib lodges report against Leissner, wants to obtain list of bribed officials

 

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak this morning lodged a report with the MACC against Tim Leissner, a former Goldman Sachs senior manager who had pleaded guilty in a US court to bribing 1MDB officials and Malaysian government officials.

According to Najib, the report was ultimately aimed at obtaining the list of officials that Leisner had bribed in relation to the 1MDB scandal, which he believed could clear his name.

"Earlier this year, my lawyer had won a case in the US to obtain the name list, which was revealed by Leissner in his guilty plea.

"However, the US government through its Department of Justice had challenged the US court decision and stopped the names from being revealed.

"At the same time, a lawyer from Brahman and Associates who represented another Goldman Sachs senior manager, Roger Ng, had issued a media statement saying that the name list is an 'exculpatory evidence' which can clear my name from being implicated in the 1MDB scam," Najib said in a statement.

Granted subpoena

The former prime minister also read out the statement to reporters after he lodged the report at MACC headquarters in Putrajaya earlier today.

According to the DOJ, Leissner, who is the former chairperson for Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia and managing director of the financial institution, had pleaded guilty on Nov 1, 2018, to a two-count criminal charge and was ordered to forfeit US$43.7 million.

He pleaded guilty to "conspiring to launder money and conspiring to violate the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) by both paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials and circumventing the internal accounting controls of the financial institution while he was employed by it".

Earlier this year, Najib was granted a subpoena by a court in the Southern District of New York for the bank and Leissner to hand him the material that he contended is important to his defence against 1MDB-linked criminal charges in Malaysia.

'I am puzzled'

However, the US government has filed for a stay of the US court order as it seeks to intervene in Najib’s matter there.

Najib in his statement today said another attempt by his legal team to obtain the list from court and prosecution in his 1MDB case was also unsuccessful.

"I am puzzled why the government of Malaysia and the prosecution are acting like they do not know about (the list) and do not want to take action against the 1MDB and government officials who were bribed by Leissner, which led to Goldman Sachs having to pay RM16.4 billion in penalty and compensation to the Malaysian government.

"I was advised and decided to lodge a report with MACC today against Leissner so that the Malaysian authority can question or bring him to Malaysia, or request the list of names from the DOJ so that the names can be published to the public and appropriate action can be taken against them."