Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner has been ordered to forfeit US$43.7 million (RM195 million) in cash by US district judge Margo Brodie in the latest development in 1MDB-related court proceedings.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Leissner (above), who pleaded guilty to participating in the 1MDB foreign bribery fraud, was ordered on Friday to surrender the assets as part of his earlier guilty plea to foreign bribery and money-laundering charges related to the 1MDB scandal.
He is also to surrender all 3.3 million shares in fitness drink company Celsius Holdings Inc.
Leissner has been freed on US$20 million bail since his arrest in June 2018. He pleaded guilty in August 2018 and was the government’s star witness against his former Goldman colleague, Roger Ng.
The forfeiture order comes on the same day the government is set to issue a sentencing recommendation for Ng.
Ahead of the full recommendation, prosecutors asked Brodie to order Ng to forfeit US$35.1 million. She is expected to sentence him on March 9.
In his own sentencing request on Feb 25, Ng asked that he be given no prison time and be allowed to return to Malaysia.
He had spent six months in a Malaysian prison before waiving his right to contest extradition to the US in 2018.
Ng has been free on bail but subject to a curfew since his conviction.
The charges stem from some US$6.5 billion (RM29.09 billion) in bonds that Goldman helped 1MDB, which was founded to finance development projects in Malaysia, sell in 2012 and 2013.
Prosecutors said US$4.5 billion of that sum was embezzled by officials, bankers, and their associates, in one of the biggest scandals in Wall Street history. - Mkini
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