Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner was sentenced on Thursday to 2 years in jail for position in 1MDB scandal.
Malaysia’s Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani has known as a two-year jail sentence for a former Goldman Sachs banker implicated within the multibillion-dollar 1Malaysia Growth Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal too lenient.
On Thursday, New York choose Margo Brodie sentenced German-born banker Tim Leissner, a former chairman for Goldman Sachs in Southeast Asia, to 2 years in jail for his position within the scandal.
Leissner, who beforehand pleaded responsible to US bribery and cash laundering counts, confronted a most sentence of 25 years.
Throughout sentencing, Brodie described Leissner’s conduct as “brazen and audacious”. Visibly emotional as he learn out a press release in court docket, Leissner supplied a “honest apology to the individuals of Malaysia” and mentioned he “deeply remorse[s]” his actions.
Ghani, chairman of the 1MDB asset restoration taskforce, mentioned on Friday that Leissner ought to have been given the utmost jail sentence as he was “one of many masterminds” of the scheme, which noticed billions of {dollars} in public cash siphoned off Malaysia’s funding fund.
The 1MDB fund was created as a automobile to draw international funding for power and infrastructure tasks in Malaysia, however was pilfered by officers and bankers.
Malaysian and US authorities estimate that round $4.5bn was stolen in complete, in an elaborate scheme that spanned the globe and implicated high-level officers, together with former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was jailed in 2022.
In 2018, Leissner pleaded responsible to bribery and cash laundering counts in relation to his position within the scandal, together with paying roughly $2bn in bribes to international officers and splitting one other $1bn in kickbacks with others within the scheme.
A US Division of Justice spokesperson mentioned he’ll start serving a 24-month sentence in September.
US prosecutors had known as for leniency because of the “extraordinary” help he had offered the probe. Leissner served because the star witness within the 2022 trial of his former colleague and Goldman Sachs Managing Director Roger Ng.
Decide Brodie sentenced Malaysian nationwide Ng to 10 years’ imprisonment in March 2023 for, amongst different crimes, “conspiring to launder billions of {dollars} embezzled” from 1MDB and paying greater than $1.6bn in bribes.
Leissner additionally offered particulars concerning the involvement of Low Taek Jho, the Malaysian financier generally known as “Jho Low”, who stands accused of stealing billions from the fund however stays at giant.