Ng ‘advised caution’ with Jho Low, says ex-Goldman compliance exec

 

Goldman Sachs rejected Jho Low (left) as a private wealth client after internal ‘red flag’ reports, Roger Ng’s 1MDB trial was told.

NEW YORK: A former compliance executive for Goldman Sachs Group Inc told the jury in ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng’s bribery trial that Ng recommended Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, as a private wealth client in 2009, but “advised caution”.

Patrick Kidney, testifying as a prosecution witness on Thursday, told the jury in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, that Ng advised Goldman compliance not to accept Low’s claims about the size and source of his wealth “at face value”.

Prosecutors showed the panel six months of compliance efforts to vet Low as a private wealth client. In the end, the bank rejected him in June 2010 after internal “red flag” reports.

Kidney said Goldman compliance met with Low several times between January and June 2010 and reported “negative feedback”, specifically that he could not explain the source of his wealth and that he submitted letters of recommendation “of an authenticity that can’t be verified” and that “appeared to be written by the same person”.

Ng, 49, is fighting charges he conspired with Low, now a fugitive, and former Goldman banker Tim Leissner to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from a trio of bond deals for 1MDB arranged by Goldman and got millions of dollars in kickbacks along the way. - FMT