Ng S Wife Created Shell Company Took Tens Of Millions From Jho Low Trial Told

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Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng received US$35.1 million through his wife’s shell entity, his 1MDB US trial was told on Monday. (AP pic)NEW YORK: Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng’s wife created a shell company and opened a bank account that prosecutors say she used to help launder tens of millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks from fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low.
Jurors at Ng’s bribery trial were shown a raft of emails on Monday that the US said was proof that Ng’s wife, Lim Hwee Bin, “played a central and crucial role” in helping her husband launder the illicit payments from a trio of bond deals that Goldman Sachs engineered for 1MDB.
Lim was not charged.
billions of dollars from the deals. He is the only Goldman Sachs banker to go on trial in the scandal.
Leissner has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government against Ng. Low has also been charged in abstentia.
A day before the first 1MDB bond deal closed, Lim inquired about creating the shell entity, Sean Fern, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified on Monday.
The company, initially named Silken Waters and later renamed Victoria Square, was opened, along with a bank account, at UBS Group AG, just days after the bond deal closed, Fern said.
While Lim’s mother, Tan Kim Chin, was listed as the beneficial owner of the shell company, Fern said he had traced emails showing that bankers communicated with Lim about Victoria Square and the UBS account.
Prosecutors say for the first US$1.75 billion bond transaction, called Project Magnolia, Low and his associates siphoned at least US$500 million, using a shell entity they created called Aabar PJS Limited in the British Virgin Islands.
Leissner said he received more than US$60 million from Low, into accounts controlled by his then wife, Judy Chan Leissner.
Using Chan’s accounts, he said, he sent Ng US$35.1 million through the entity set up by Lim.
Ng has argued that Chan sent the money to Lim for an unrelated business transaction. His lawyers said they intend to call Lim to testify for her husband. - FMT

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