Hello Deepdives commumity! It's a beautiful day and a time to share with you news on crypto fraud and how the court is handling it. Good evening!
The investigation process of former Goldman banker Roger Ng has been ongoing and today the jury have finalized on the case.
A U.S. judge on Friday ordered former Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) banker Roger Ng to forfeit $35.1 million, after sentencing him to 10 years in prison for helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.
U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn rejected Ng's argument that he owned no more money after forfeiting to Malaysia tens of millions of dollars of alleged proceeds from his crimes.
This argument was supported by his lawyer who said that his client have been drained by the Malaysian court and had nothing more for himself to forfeit to the court. Although, this argument isn't relevant because the court have finalized it's decision on the case.
Brodie, however, said the $35.1 million forfeiture was not constitutionally excessive. She further said that even though Roger Ng was not culpable in the fraud, but he played a great role in what she described as the greatest financial crimes of all times, a scheme that caused "intangible harm to the public's confidence in democracy and government."
Brodie imposed Ng's prison sentence on March 9, 11 months after jurors found him guilty of helping his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money from 1MDB, launder the proceeds, and bribe government officials to win business.
Roger Ng isn't the only one charged and that is facing jail term. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is also facing a 12 year jail term for collecting $10 million in the said 1MDB unit. Najib has consistently denied wrongdoing.
Leissner faces a Sept. 6 sentencing. Goldman settled with authorities in October 2020, agreeing to pay $2.9 billion and having its Malaysian unit plead guilty to a corruption charge.
All of these is in an effort to fight corruption and fraudulent activities and also defend and build the trust of people in the tenets of democracy.