FORMER Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker and convicted 1MDB conspirator Roger Ng said he spent six months in a squalid Malaysian prison where he was sometimes chained to as many as 20 other inmates.
In a court filing, Ng described his previous incarceration in a letter to US district judge Margo Brodie, pleading for leniency when he is sentenced next week for his role in the looting of 1MDB.
Bloomberg reported that in the letter on Saturday, Ng argued that the time he spent in Sungai Buloh prison before his May 2019 extradition to the US was “absolute hell” and was punishment enough for his crimes.
He is asking Brodie to give him no additional jail time in the US when she sentences him on March 9 in the federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Ng, 51, is the only Goldman employee to have gone to trial over the 1MDB scandal.
The one-time managing director further described that in Sungai Buloh, he lived with rats and other vermin, slept on a cement floor and contracted malaria and leptospirosis, a bacterial infection spread through contact with rat urine.
When he was taken to court, he said, he was handcuffed with 20 other prisoners in a “chain” and loaded into a crowded truck, adding that he was held in solitary confinement for up to two weeks at a time.
“Six months in the Malaysian prison had a devastating effect mentally and physically,” he reportedly wrote.
“Until today, I find myself reclusive socially as I continue to deal with this brutal and distressing experience. The time without sunlight and in isolation made me lose my mind and become frightful.”
Ng was convicted by a federal jury in April of three felony counts, including conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and conspiring to launder money.
Tim Leissner, Ng’s former Goldman boss, pleaded guilty and was the government’s star witness in the trial. Leissner will be sentenced in September.
Goldman paid more than US$2.3 bil in the plea deal, the largest penalty in US history for a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. – Feb 28, 2023
Main pic credit: Mary Altaffer/AP
