Ex-banker Ng to help recover 1MDB assets linked to Goldman: Malaysia minister

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 (Oct 9). “It will depend on how fast the enforcement agencies handle the investigation and what comes out of it,” he said. Ng arrived in the South-east Asian nation over the weekend.

The country is focusing on recovering as much as possible from the billions of US dollars that were looted from the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

Goldman made US$593 million working on three bond sales that raised US$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 US$2.5 billion cash payment and for the guaranteed return of US$1.4 billion of seized 1MDB assets.

Ng, a Malaysian national who was convicted in the US for his role in the 1MDB scandal, was scheduled to begin a 10-year prison sentence on Oct 6. But US officials have allowed the sentence to be deferred so that Ng could return to Malaysia and assist the investigation. BLOOMBERG