3 spicy gossip tidbits from the recent US 1MDB trials to tell your pakcik

When we talk about 1MDB, the face that pops up in our heads might be that of Najib Razak or Jho Low, but there are plenty of other characters not talked about enough. One of them is Roger Ng Chong Hwa, a former Goldman Sachs employee that had allegedly been part of the scandal since the very start. We’ve wrote a more in-depth article about him before, so do check that out if you’re clueless on who he is.

Anyhoo, Roger is on trial in the US for conspiring to launder money and violating anti-bribery laws, having allegedly received millions of dollars in kickbacks for assisting the whole 1MDB embezzlement thing. But what’s interesting during the trials is the testimonies by his former boss, Tim Leissner. Once Goldman Sach’s Southeast Asia operation chief, Leissner had plead guilty for his role in the scandal and is now ready to spill against Roger as the government’s star witness.

And boy, the tea he did spill… it got the Malaysian Twittersphere in a tizzy for the past few days. So in case you FOMO, here are some key points to talk to your political uncle about.

 

1. Former Astro CEO allegedly blackmailed him into buying her a house

In his testimony, Leissner admitted to buying a USD10 million house (about RM42 million) in London using money he got from 1MDB back in 2013. The spicy part was who the house was for, and why.

From 2003 to 2013, Leissner was reportedly in a romantic relationship with Datuk Rohana Rozhan, who was CEO of Astro Malaysia Holdings until she resigned in 2019. Their relationship wasn’t exactly a secret, but the 10-year fling came to an end when Leissner decided to break up with her to marry Kimora Lee Simmons. Yes, the supermodel from Life in the Fab Lane.

Rohana was upset with the turn of events, and allegedly told Leissner that if he didn’t buy her a house, she would tattle on him for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal.

“Ms. Rozhan [sic] was very upset that I was ending our relationship to be with my future wife, with Kimora. If I didn’t buy her a house, she would tell the authorities about my involvement in the 1MDB scandal. She was threatening to expose me. At the time, 2013, I was very fearful of that,” – Leissner, as quoted by Malay Mail.

The implication that Rohana knew about the scandal back then and got something out of it is pretty serious, but as far as we can tell, she had yet to come up with an official statement refuting the allegation.

But it should also be noted that Rohana wasn’t the only local woman Leissner admitted to having an affair with. There were at least two others: the daughter to a Malaysian ambassador to the US, and the niece of a former Sarawak Chief Minister. Dayyum!

 

2. Zeti’s husband was allegedly bribed to allow an ‘overnight’ USD1 billion transfer

Sometime in 2009, Leissner heard from Roger that 1MDB had invested USD1 billion in a joint venture project with PetroSaudi. Bank Negara Malaysia would then have to approve a billion dollars leaving Malaysia, but Leissner heard from Roger that the money had been wired overnight, which was weird since the approval process was so quick. Apparently, something shady allegedly happened: a bribe. Dun dun dunnn.

“A billion dollars was wired overnight to Malaysia to the joint venture and it had been done because the husband of the then governor Zeti (Akhtar Aziz) at Bank Negara had received a bribe to make that happen,” – Leissner, as quoted by MalaysiaKini.

Leissner had admitted that he “don’t know independently if bribes had been paid”, but in the uproar that followed, a lot of denials came from the accused parties. Zeti’s husband, Dr Tawfiq Ayman, had denied knowing or ever communicating with neither Roger or Leissner, and stressed that he had never in his entire life received bribes from anyone.

Bank Negara Malaysia had also responded with a press statement that essentially said the transaction was treated like any other transaction, and the process was transparent and was published on their site.

3. Najib allegedly tried to get his kids jobs at Goldman Sachs

As told by Leissner, back in 2009, Najib Razak visited his children in New York for the Thanksgiving holidays, and Jho Low (who was introduced to Leissner by Roger) thought this was a good chance for Najib to meet former Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein. This was just before a deal for 1MDB to work with Goldman Sachs on bond deals worth USD6.5 billion, and it was allegedly agreed for Leissner and Roger to get Najib’s three children jobs at Goldman Sachs in exchange for the business.

“Just met PM’s three children with Jho at his apartment. We’ll work on getting them to join GS.” – excerpt from an e-mail Ng sent Leissner, as reported by Bloomberg.

To that end, Jho Low allegedly passed along the resume of Najib’s daughter to Leissner for a position in Goldman’s London office, where Leissner discussed it with a senior official at the bank. However, at the time banks were going under scrutiny for giving jobs to prominent families in Asia, and Leissner was worried that this might be seen as some kind of bribe. The application was rejected, but fearing that the rejection would put their relationship with Malaysia in jeopardy, Leissner recommended Najib’s daughter for a job at TPG Inc., a private equity firm – which she eventually got.

Following the spilling, Najib had responded with a long post on Facebook, saying what was told was an attempt to bribe him instead, and that none of his children had been offered jobs or even worked at Goldman Sachs. Najib’s daughter herself, Nooryana Najwa Najib, had admitted that she did met up with Roger and Leissner, but only to learn more about Goldman Sachs’ analyst program and network with industry professionals.

On her TPG appointment, it was just as an intern analyst at TPG’s London office.

“This meant you’re at the bottom of the food chain. Besides your core job scope you’re also responsible for the spadework. You’re the PowerPoint girl, the photocopying girl, the coffee girl and the delivery girl just to name a few,” – Nooryana on her intern analyst job, as quoted by The Edge Markets.

Well, that’s it for now. Leissner’s shift to the prosecution side brought to light some pretty interesting things we’re not aware of before, but at this point in time, we can’t say whether these are the actual truth or just testimony. For now, the trial had been paused due to some 15,500 documents related to Leissner not being shared with Roger’s team, but we wonder what else might be revealed in the future.

In the meantime, please enjoy this tabloid-style featured image we didn’t use: