April 8 (UPI) -- Former Goldman Sachs Managing Director Roger Ng was convicted Friday of bribery and money laundering in connection to embezzlement of Malaysian state fund 1MDB, the U.S. Justice Department announced.
A federal jury in New York reached the verdict after multiple days of deliberation in a trial that lasted nearly two months.
Ng, who worked for Goldman Sachs from 2005 through 2014, received more than $35 million kickbacks as part of the scheme, which saw $4.5 billion stolen from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad sovereign wealth fund. The 1MDB fund was created to push economic development and foreign direct investment.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Ng conspired to circumvent Goldman Sachs' internal accounting to control to ensure the bank approved bond deals critical to the scheme. He, along with his former boss, Tim Leissner, laundered the proceeds by purchasing real estate in New York City, artwork and jewelry, and funding Hollywood films.
"The scheme was massive in its scale -- the defendant and his co-conspirators embezzled billions of dollars from the fund. It was brazen in its execution -- Ng obtained lucrative business for his employer by bribing a dozen government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. And it was obscene in its greed," Peace said.
Ng faces up to 30 years in prison for the convictions.
