KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur, through the attorney-general, must press for the return of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) monies from former Goldman Sachs Group Inc bankers Tim Leissner and Roger Ng.
Titiwangsa member of parliament and former second finance minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the sum to be paid followed United State district judge Margo Brodie's ruling on March 3 that Leissner had surrendered certain cash and assets as part of his earlier guilty plea to foreign bribery and money-laundering charges related to the 1MDB scandal.
The court had ordered Leissner to forfeit US$43.7 million in cash, as well as all 3.3 million shares in the fitness drink company Celsius Holdings Inc.
Further, US prosecutors also ordered Ng to surrender US$35.1 million, which he had earned from the whole scheme.
Ng is scheduled to be sentenced on March 9.
"Both the forfeited amounts stated should be returned to the Malaysian government as part of the recovery of 1MDB assets," Johari said, adding that the US$43.7 million, together with the Celcius shares, which were worth US$94.78 up to March 3, brought the total forfeiture value for Leissner to roughly US$356 million.
Leissner has been freed on a US$20 million bail since his arrest in June 2018.
He pleaded guilty in August 2018 and was the US government's star witness against his former colleague, Ng.
Bloomberg quoted the US government in reporting that both Leissner, who is Goldman Sachs' former Southeast Asia head, and Ng conspired with financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low — the alleged mastermind of the sprawling fraud scheme — to bribe officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to facilitate bond deals.
Ng, 51, the only Goldman Sachs employee to go to trial over the multi-billion dollar looting, was convicted by a federal jury in April of three felony counts, including conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and conspiring to launder money.
Last month, Johari took Goldman Sachs to task for taking advantage of poor negotiations led by former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's government to delay payments in the 1MDB settlement agreement made two years ago.
According to the reports, the agreement between Muhyiddin's government and Goldman Sachs expected US$1.4 billion in 1MDB assets by 2025 as part of a RM16.77 billion settlement reached over losses incurred by the state investment fund.