Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner testified yesterday that he was once told by Jho Low that he had talked to Jared Kushner and others close to then US president Donald Trump on the 1MDB affair.
According to Bloomberg, Leissner testified that the conversation with Jho Low took place in Hong Kong sometime in 2017, after his former colleague Roger Ng was arrested in Singapore.
Leissner said Low claimed to have been in "dialogue" with Kushner (above) - Trump's son-in-law - and a senior White House advisor over a "global settlement".
This arrangement, said Leissner, would allow him, Ng and Low to avoid criminal charges over 1MDB in the US.
"He said he had had dialogue with administration of Trump, that he had met with Jared Kushner in Beijing and had worked with the president and his administration who were in support of a settlement around basically everybody around Jho," Leissner told the court.
Leissner testified that Low claimed that the settlement will be several billion dollars to which the latter would pay on his own.
"The payment that would forever settle the 1MDB issue," said Leissner.
Bloomberg spoke to a person that was familiar with Kushner's schedule and said the latter never met Low before while Leissner told the court he could not independently verify if Low was telling the truth.
Kushner was a senior advisor to the president when Trump was in office. Bloomberg noted that engaging Kushner would have been a big step up for Low's attempts to avoid prosecution in the US.
In 2020, lobbyist Elliot Broidy pleaded guilty to US foreign lobbying laws by accepting US$9 million from Low to push the Trump administration to extradite a Chinese dissident and to drop cases involving 1MDB.
In the court indictment against Broidy, US prosecutors said the accused personally asked Trump to invite Najib to play golf when the latter visited the US in September 2017.
The court indictment said the goal was to give Najib a chance to "attempt to resolve the 1MDB matter" with Trump. Broidy was eventually pardoned by Trump. At the time, Broidy told the court that he was promised a US$75 million success fee by Low.
Meanwhile, Leissner also told the court that Low claimed to have hired former New Jersey governor Chris Christie for the so-called settlement negotiations. Low claimed he promised Christie a US$10 million success fee, Leissner said.
Christie told Bloomberg that he never had any discussions with the Trump administration that the criminal investigations and charges against Low ought to be dropped. Christie also denied that there was an agreement over a success fee.
Leissner is the star witness in the trial against Ng, his former subordinate at Goldman Sachs. Ng is a Malaysian national.
Ng is accused of conspiring with Leissner to launder money from US$6.5 billion raised through bonds arranged by Goldman Sachs. In turn, both Leissner and Ng received US$60 million and US$35 million in kickbacks respectively, according to prosecutors.
In 2020, Leissner pleaded guilty and forfeited US$44 million. Goldman Sachs reached a settlement with US prosecutors in 2020 as well, agreeing to forfeit around US$5 billion.
The cross-examination of Leissner began yesterday. - Mkini
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