Wife of 1MDB accused Roger Ng tells US court she need not do anything as ‘truth itself will save him’

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — The spouse of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng who is on trial in the US for conspiring to steal and launder money from 1MDB is positive that “truth” will prevail and save her husband.

Lim Hwee Bin, who took to the stand as the last defence witness, insisted that the US$35 million (RM147 million) the US government argued was a kickback was really money from a separate and legitimate investment that she made with a woman named Judy Chan Leissner when the latter was married to Tim Leissner, a senior Goldman Sach’s banker back when he was Ng’s boss.

According to a news report by Bloomberg, US prosecutor Alixandra Smith had questioned Lim on a June 2018 Singapore newspaper report that Malaysian authorities were about to arrest her husband and another Malaysian, flamboyant businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low.

Lim reportedly said she found it “pretty irritating” to have her husband’s name mentioned in the news report.

Lim dismissed the prosecution’s suggestion that her court testimony was an effort to protect her husband.

“No, I don’t need to protect Roger.

“I wouldn’t want to see him convicted for a crime. The truth itself will save him. He doesn’t need me to do anything,” Lim was quoted saying.

Bloomberg reported that after the defence closed its case, US prosecutors called two FBI employees as rebuttal witnesses to Lim’s testimony.

According to the news report, they revealed how the initial investment of US$830,000 made by Lim in 1998 had grown to US$34.9 million by 2005. Lim previously testified that the money was earnings from the China-based businesses owned by Chan Leissner’s family.

The US trial is expected to conclude next week.

Ng, 49, was Goldman’s former chief for Malaysia. He is charged with conspiring with Leissner to embezzle, bribe, and launder money from the Malaysian sovereign investment fund in violation of US anti-corruption laws.

Leissner, who had been Ng’s supervisor at Goldman, had pled guilty to receiving kickbacks from Jho Low, for helping embezzle funds Goldman raised for 1MDB through three bond sales but was never charged.

He is now cooperating with the US government as its key witness against Ng.