NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters) – Roger Ng, the previous Goldman Sachs (GS.N) banker convicted for serving to loot Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, on Friday sued the federal government’s star witness Tim Leissner for greater than $130 million, alleging fraud.
In a grievance filed in a New York state courtroom in Manhattan, Ng accused his former boss of repeatedly mendacity as a way to steal his investments in power drink maker Celsius Holdings (CELH.O) and synthetic intelligence firm Sentient Applied sciences.
The grievance mentioned Leissner, a former Goldman accomplice, stole Ng’s cash to cowl his personal protection prices in a associated prison case the place he pleaded responsible in 2018, whereas depriving Ng of funds to defend himself and enchantment his conviction.
“Ng is within the unimaginable place of getting to defend himself towards allegations made by the one who defrauded him and who stole the cash that plaintiff Ng must defend towards those self same allegations,” the grievance mentioned.
Leissner’s legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Ng, the previous head of funding banking for Goldman Sachs Malaysia, mentioned Leissner’s thefts included a $1.25 million Celsius stake now price greater than $130 million, plus $1 million meant to purchase half of Leissner’s curiosity in Sentient.
He mentioned it wasn’t till Might 2021 when Leissner and his spouse, the mannequin and entrepreneur Kimora Lee Simmons, have been sued by Simmons’ former husband, document govt Russell Simmons, that he realized Leissner had diverted the Celsius funding.
In October 2020, Goldman agreed to pay $2.9 billion and its Malaysian unit pleaded responsible to a corruption cost, to settle probes into the looting of billions of {dollars} from 1MDB and fee of bribes to win enterprise for the Wall Avenue financial institution.
A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Ng in April of conspiring to violate an anti-bribery regulation and commit cash laundering.
Ng faces as much as 30 years in jail. He and Leissner are scheduled to be sentenced in mid-February.
Jho Low, a Malaysian financier and suspected mastermind of the looting, was additionally indicted in Brooklyn and stays at giant.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Modifying by David Gregorio
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