Malaysia’s main objective for seeking former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng’s return to the country is for him to help authorities recover more 1MDB assets linked to the US bank, according to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution.
(Bloomberg) — Malaysia’s main objective for seeking former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng’s return to the country is for him to help authorities recover more 1MDB assets linked to the US bank, according to Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution.
There is no time limit for how long Ng will remain in Malaysia, Saifuddin told reporters in Putrajaya on Monday. “It will depend on how fast the enforcement agencies handle the investigation and what comes out of it,” he said. Ng, a Malaysian, arrived in the Southeast Asian nation over the weekend.
Malaysia is focusing on recovering as much as possible from the billions of dollars looted from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund. The development company took shape in 2009 under former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was imprisoned last year for corruption and is currently seeking a royal pardon.
Goldman made $593 million working on three bond sales that raised $6.5 billion for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013. Under a July 2020 settlement, Malaysia dropped all criminal charges against the bank over its role in the scandal in exchange for a $2.5 billion cash payment and for the guaranteed return of $1.4 billion of seized 1MDB assets.
Ng was convicted in the US in connection with 1MDB, and was scheduled to begin a 10-year prison sentence on Oct. 6. But US officials allowed the sentence to be deferred so that Ng could return to Malaysia and assist the investigation.
“When Malaysia was investigating Roger, the Department of Justice requested for him to be sent to the US,” said Saifuddin. “After the US case finished and he was sentenced to 10 years, we asked for Ng’s return so that we can complete our unfinished business,” he added.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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