Leissner mentions Tengku Zafrul’s name in testimony

 

Former Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia chairman Tim Leissner says he was invited to a meeting, in which Tengku Zafrul Aziz and Jho Low would be present, to discuss about Terengganu Investment Authority,  which later became 1MDB.

PETALING JAYA: Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz’s name has been mentioned in the ongoing trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng in the US.

This came after Tim Leissner, the star witness in Ng’s trial, told a federal court in Brooklyn, New York, that he was invited to a high-level meeting on the Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA), which later became 1MDB.

FMT has reached out to Tengku Zafrul’s office for comment.

According to court documents sighted by FMT, Leissner acknowledged an email from Ng about a TIA meeting with Terengganu ruler Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, who was the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 2009.

Ng said that others who would be present at the meeting include himself, Low Taek Jho or Jho Low, and Kenanga Investment Bank group managing director Ramli Ismail and Tengku Zafrul, who was then a director at Kenanga.

Low, who Leissner previously said was an adviser to Sultan Mizan and made key decisions in TIA, is widely considered the 1MDB affair mastermind.

Then, Leissner also revealed how Low was instrumental in getting Goldman Sachs involved in TIA.

In Leissner’s testimony, he said Ng told him that the purpose of the meeting would be for Sultan Mizan to meet the people “from the banks”.

Asked by prosecutors on whether he knew that Tengku Zafrul was from Kenanga, Leissner said: “I don’t know if (he was) at the time.”

“He had moved around in my lifetime as a banker, so I don’t know at this particular time.”

Leissner also said he could not recall if Kenanga wanted to be a joint adviser along with Goldman Sachs on the TIA project. - FMT