Former Goldman Sachs Managing Director Convicted of Violating FCPA

Roger Ng, former managing director of The Goldman Sachs Group, was convicted by a federal jury in the Eastern District of New York for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in a scheme with Malaysia's state-owned investment and development fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, DOJ announced. Ng was found guilty of conspiring to bribe a dozen foreign officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to obtain business for Goldman Sachs from 1MDB.

Ng, of Malaysia, worked as an employee at Goldman Sachs, serving as managing director of various Goldman Sachs subsidiaries, from 2005 to 2014. From 2009 to 2014, though, Ng laundered billions of dollars diverted from 1MDB which was raised, in part, through three bond transactions executed through Goldman Sachs, DOJ said. Ng and others paid over $1 billion in bribes to 12 Malaysian and Emirati government officials to get business for Goldman Sachs, including the bond deals.

The proceeds of this conduct were laundered through multiple outlets, including funding Hollywood films such as "The Wolf of Wall Street" and through other ventures including purchasing a $51 million Jean-Michael Basquiat painting from a famous New York auction house, DOJ said. By working with 1MDB, Goldman Sachs received around $600 million in fees and revenues with Ng bagging $35 million alone for his role in the scheme. Goldman Sachs and its Malaysian subsidiary admitted to conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA in October 2020.

“Roger Ng participated in a massive bribery and money laundering scheme involving the corruption of high-level foreign officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite, of DOJ's Criminal Division. “This trial demonstrates the commitment by the Department of Justice to prosecute and hold accountable individuals who engage in corruption and use our financial system to launder funds related to their illicit schemes. We will continue to pursue criminal wrongdoers and will seek to bring them to justice, wherever they are, deprive them of their ill-gotten gains, and, wherever possible, return corrupt proceeds to those harmed by corruption -- as we have throughout our long[-]standing investigation into the 1MDB scheme.”