FBI Agent Testifies In US Court That Najib Received RM3.18 Billion From 1MDB Stolen Funds
The agent also revealed that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho received about RM5.97 billion from the 1MDB stolen funds.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 15 Mar 2022, 11:13 AM
A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent has testified in a US court that former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak received USD756 million (about RM3.18 billion today) from 1MDB
Agent Eric Van Dorn made the revelation during a trial against former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York yesterday, 14 March, reported Bloomberg.
Other than Najib, Van Dorn told the jury that fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, stole USD1.42 billion (about RM5.97 billion) of 1MDB funds.
The colossal sum was siphoned through bond transactions that Goldman Sachs Group Inc arranged for the Malaysian wealth fund.
Meanwhile, the court heard that the former managing director of Abu Dhabi's state-owned International Petroleum Investment Co, Khadem al-Qubaisi, received USD472.8 million (about RM1.99 billion) from the arrangement.
Additionally, Van Dorn said Ng — who is a Malaysian and the only Goldman Sachs banker who claimed trial over the 1MDB case — received USD35.1 million (about RM147.8 million)
The FBI agent also testified that the former Goldman Sachs Group partner Tim Leissner received USD73.4 million (about RM309 million).
Leissner is Ng's former boss and the US government's star witness in the trial. He is currently collaborating with the authorities for a lighter sentence after pleading guilty in the case and forfeiting USD43 million (about RM181 million).
Van Dorn knows how much these individuals allegedly siphoned from 1MDB because he was involved in tracking where the money went. It is learnt that at least 16 individuals benefited from the mega looting of the state-owned investment company.
Prior to this, investigators established that Najib received USD681 million from 1MDB's third bond raising exercise in 2013
According to Malaysiakini, Leissner testified that the funds were used to plump up Najib's war chest during that year's election.
Investigators also revealed that Najib later returned USD620 million of the funds.
Najib claimed the money was a donation and it had been wired back to his "Arab donors", but investigators said it was instead returned to accounts controlled by Low.
The former prime minister is currently standing a trial in the 1MDB case in Malaysia, where he is facing 21 money laundering charges.
Separately, he is currently on a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Federal Court to overturn his conviction in the SRC International case.
He was sentenced to 12 years in jail on 28 July 2020.
