Date: Wednesday, April 6, 2022

To: Interested Parties

Subject: Information on Goldman Sachs’ Role in the Egregious 1MDB Global Crime Spree as the Trial of Former Goldman Sachs’ Partner Ng Goes to the Jury

Event: Justice Dpt. prosecution of Goldman Sachs’ former partner goes to jury with a verdict expected this week.

From: Evelyn Swan, Press Secretary, at 202-618-6433 or eswan@bettermarkets.org

This information is being provided as the Department of Justice’s criminal trial of Goldman Sachs partner Roger Ng goes to the jury in federal court in Brooklyn.  The trial’s focus on Ng’s conduct, particularly given the testimony of former Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner, has overshadowed the critical role of Goldman Sachs itself and its thirty-plus executives, supervisors and others who were involved in the 1MDB scandal.  However, the importance of the role of Goldman Sachs in what has been described as “one of the greatest financial heists in history” cannot be overstated and should not be overlooked.  Moreover, the crimes were egregiousness and shocked the conscience, not only undermining democracy in an entire country and enabling the election of a corrupt prime minister, but also resulting in at least one person (a prosecutor investigating criminal conduct at 1MDB and the involvement of the prime minister) being brutally murdered.

Virtually none of that likely would have happened but for the billions of dollars generated from the Goldman Sachs bond offering, as detailed in the Report linked below.  While Goldman Sachs claimed it had no idea what was going on, that claim is directly rebutted by numerous red flags and express warnings throughout Goldman Sachs during its involvement with 1MDB, which provided a gigantic if not unprecedented payday for the firm and its senior executives.  Goldman’s claim is that these two partners lied and fooled all the supposedly smartest, highest paid bankers in the world as well as all of Goldman’s claimed state-of-the-art, high-tech, robust comprehensive layers of risk, compliance, legal and audit systems and controls, and all of Goldman’s management.  As is now obvious to all, Leissner and Ng are not the criminal masterminds that would have been required to pull that off.

The materials below provide the details of Goldman’s involvement in the 1MDB crimes as well as the failures of the Department of Justice in giving Goldman Sachs the red carpet treatment with a sweetheart settlement for its criminal involvement.  Unlike the textbook prosecution DOJ is supposed to specialize in, where junior people like Ng and Leissner are caught and flipped to testify against their superiors, DOJ flipped the script with Goldman and used a more senior partner (Leissner) to testify against his junior (Ng) while everyone else at Goldman Sachs got off scot-free.  Sure, the bank itself had to pay a fine, but DOJ did not go after any other individuals at Goldman.  This double standard of injustice is one of the primary reasons Wall Street doesn’t fear being caught or, if caught, being meaningfully punished for its lawbreaking.  These deals for the executives and supervisors reward past lawbreaking and incentivize future lawbreaking.  In short, DOJ’s actions here sent the message that crime pays.

Materials

Report: Goldman Sachs’ 1MDB “Four Monkeys” Defense (detailing Goldman’s involvement including numerous red flags): https://bettermarkets.org/sites/default/files/Better%20Markets%20-%20Goldman%20Sachs%27%201MDB%20Four%20Monkeys%20Defense%2004-25-2019.pdf

Report: Goldman Sachs’ recidivist record:  https://bettermarkets.org/sites/default/files/documents/Goldman_Sachs%27_20-Year_RAP_Sheet_Sept-08-2020.pdf (press release here: https://bettermarkets.org/newsroom/doj-must-consider-goldman-sachs-two-decade-long-rap-sheet-repeated-illegal-conduct-when/)

Press Release on announcement of Goldman’s 1MDB settlement of criminal charges with DOJ:  https://bettermarkets.org/newsroom/statement-goldman-doj-1mdb-settlement/

Press Release on JPMorgan Chase’s Sept. 2020 settlement of criminal charges with DOJ (showing worthlessness of DOJ’s deferred prosecution agreements (DPA) like the one Goldman received in connection with 1MDB):  https://bettermarkets.org/newsroom/statement-jpmorgan-settlement-coming-top-two-recent-criminal-cases-and-20-years-repeated/

Report: RAP Sheet for Wall St’s 6 biggest banks’ crime spree: https://www.moneylaundering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/BetterMarkets.Report.SixBiggestBanks.122420.pdf