By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters – Monday’s opening statements in the U.S. corruptrial trial against a former Goldman Sachs Banker (NYSE 🙂 is expected. He was accused of laundering hundreds of millions from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth funds.

Roger Ng is Goldman’s ex-head of Malaysian investment banking. He has been accused of conspiracy to launder money, and violating an anti-bribery statute. Ng’s lawyer called Ng a “fall man” in connection to one of Wall Street’s most scandalous financial transactions.

Brooklyn Federal Court could hold the trial for up to six week.

Prosecutors will likely argue that Ng assisted two of his co-conspirators, Timothy Leissner (his former boss) and Jho Low (the Malaysian intermediary). They laundered funds from 1MDB, used the stolen money to bribe Southeast Asian officials to get business for Goldman.

Leissner was a former Goldman Sachs Asia partner. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiracy to money laundering and conspiracy to break the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In part, Leissner helped to pay $1.6 million in bribes. Ng is likely to call him as a witness for the government.

Ng’s defense will argue that Low and Leissner did not have any role in his scheme, and that Low even advised Goldman management to avoid Low. Marc Agnifilo (Ng’s defense lawyer) has claimed that Leissner falsely accused Ng of being involved in the scheme, in order to lessen his punishment.

Leissner is still not sentenced.

It all stemmed from $6.5 Billion in bonds Goldman sold 1MDB, a Malaysian prime minister’s initiative to boost economic growth. According to U.S. authorities, $4.5 billion was stolen.

U.S. authorities claim that Goldman received $600 million from these deals. As part of the deal known as a “deferred prosecution agreement” (DPA), which was reached with Department of Justice, Goldman paid $2.3 Billion in fines, and also returned $600 M in ill-gotten profits.

Although the trial may shed some light on Goldman’s response to possible corruption warnings, it is not likely that any material harm will be done to the bank.

Low was also indicted in 2018 alongside Ng. However, he has yet to be arrested either by U.S. authorities or Malaysian officials. Malaysia claims he’s in China. Beijing denies this.