Malaysia has extradited a former Goldman Sachs leader to the US to face criminal charges linked to a multi-billion dollar scandal at Malaysia’s state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), reported daily financial newspaper The Edge on 6 May.

Illustrative image (Photo: The Telegraph)

Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng, left Goldman Sachs in 2014. He has been detained in Kuala Lumpur since 1 November, shortly after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced charges against him for allegedly laundering funds diverted from the 1MDB fund.

Ng had agreed to be sent to the US, but the proceedings were delayed after Malaysia’s home minister said he should first face criminal charges in the Southeast Asian nation.

Ng was charged in Malaysia with four counts of abetting the bank to provide misleading statements in the offering prospectus for 1MDB bond sales.

Malaysian and US authorities agreed last week to extradite Ng to the US, The Edge reported.

The newspaper quoted a source as saying that he left on 3 May and is now in the US under the watch of the DoJ.

The US attorney general’s office and Ng’s lawyer did not comment on the case.

A prosecutor working on Ng’s case, who asked not to be identified, said the US attorney general would release a statement on the defendant’s status soon.

Aside from Roger Ng, former Goldman Sachs official Tim Leissner and Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho have also been charged in the US over 1MDB funds. Leissner has pleaded guilty.

Goldman Sachs is under scrutiny for its role as underwriter and arranger of three bond sales that raised 6.5 billion USD for the 1MDB.

The DoJ has estimated that a total of 4.5 billion USD was misappropriated by high-level 1MDB fund officials and their associates between 2009 and 2014, including some of the funds that Goldman Sachs helped to raise.

Goldman Sachs has consistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian government and the 1MDB lied to it about how the bond proceeds would be used.

(Source: VNA)