Najib: None of my children have ever been offered a job at Goldman Sachs

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak today refuted the testimony by a key witness in the United States trial of former 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) banker Roger Ng that a 2009 meeting between him and ex-Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s former chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, had led to corrupt business deals.

According to a report by Bloomberg today, the witness, Tim Leissner — who was Goldman’s former South-east Asia operations chairman — said that the meeting culminated in an agreement to secure jobs for three of Najib’s children at the bank, in return for substantial business dealings.

“None of my children have ever been offered a job or even a job at Goldman Sachs.

“While the headlines of the local media gave the impression that I was being bribed by Goldman Sachs who offered for my children to work at the bank, what former executive witness Tim Leissner described was their ATTEMPT to bribe me. Yet this did not happen and none of my children had ever been offered a job at Goldman Sachs and had never worked at that US bank. (That too an offer to work, not an offer to be given projects or bribes),” Najib wrote in a Facebook post today.

Leissner had told the trial that the supposed agreement had occurred before the bank’s role in 1MDB that saw it issuing US$6.5 billion worth of bonds for itself and its subsidiaries, with fees amounting to US$600 million.

He was reportedly explaining the role that he and his subordinate Ng had played together with fugitive Low Taek Jho — more commonly known as Jho Low — in the 1MDB scandal.

In his posting today, Najib said that Leissner had introduced his daughter Nooryana Najwa Najib to apply for a job at TPG Capital in Hong Kong that is linked to Goldman Sachs, admitting that she later worked at the company in a “junior position” for one year.

He said that the matter was also public knowledge and that Nooryana had served as an investor relations professional.

“I wonder why the media is playing with employment issues for my children when Tim Leissner’s statement in court yesterday also included allegations that BNM’s approval for 1MDB to transfer US$1 billion to PetroSaudi and Good Star was given immediately because of the husband to the then governor of BNM had been bribed. Does the media not want to report on this?” he asked, referring to former Bank Negara Malaysia governor, Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz, and her husband, Datuk Tawfiq Ayman.

At Ng’s trial in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York yesterday, Leissner reportedly read out an email he received from Ng that said: “Just met PM’s three children with Jho at his apartment”.

“Sounds good my friend. Get them in,” is what Leissner reportedly replied.

However, Leissner was quoted as saying that he only helped Najib’s daughter Nooryana Najwa get a job at TPG Capital.

Leissner also reportedly testified that the meeting between Blankfein and Najib had occurred at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York — based on recommendations by Low — after Najib went to the US to meet his children for the Thanksgiving holidays, which is celebrated in late November every year.

He was also quoted as testifying that he and Ng used codenames when referring to Jho, such as “Friend” and “PMO” (for the Prime Minister’s Office), to avoid detection by Goldman’s oversight officials.

“Had we raised [Low’s] name in his true capacity, we would not have been approved [by the oversight officials],” Leissner reportedly said, explaining that Goldman had concerns about the source of Low’s wealth.

According to the report, Leissner described Low as “essential” and “a key decision maker” in securing business in Malaysia and added that Low had secretly given Goldman bankers inside information on how 1MDB was choosing a bank to advise it.

Additionally, he reportedly said that Low had even proposed a deal involving hiring Goldman to oversee the purchase of a Kazakh gold mine.

This was the second time that Leissner took to the stand in this trial — with the first being on February 17 — where he is cooperating with the US government’s investigation after pleading guilty in 2018 to similar crimes.

Leissner was reported to have previously testified in the trial that began on February 14 that he and Ng were “best friends” and had worked together to deceive their bosses at Goldman about supposed bribes received for the 1MDB deal.

Ng was head of Goldman’s Malaysian head of investment banking and is charged with conspiring with Leissner to launder money in violation of US anti-bribery laws.

To date, Ng is the only former Goldman banker to claim trial in the scandal.