Nearly seven years after pleading guilty to his role in one of the largest financial scandals in history, former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Tim Leissner is set to find out on Thursday if he’s going to prison.
Leissner, 53, admitted to helping siphon billions of dollars from the Malaysian investment fund, 1MDB, to pay about US$2 billion ($2.59 billion) in bribes to foreign officials while splitting another US$1 billion in kickbacks with others in the scheme. Leissner, Goldman’s former Southeast Asia chairman, cut a deal with US prosecutors that allowed him to remain free if he helped the investigation and testified against former banking colleague Roger Ng.
Leissner faces as many as 25 years in prison over his involvement in the fraud that toppled the Malaysian government and led to investigations in six countries. Goldman, his former employer, paid more than US$5 billion to settle global probes related to 1MDB, including US$2.9 billion in one of the largest penalties in history for a violation of US anti-bribery laws.
In their push for leniency, prosecutors said Leissner provided “extraordinary” help, and that he also continues to assist them with undisclosed investigations into “other crimes.” Goldman pushed back against the request in its own filing.
In addition to helping embezzle billions of dollars in 1MDB funds, Leissner admitted to pocketing US$73.4 million diverted from the fund and another US$80 million from Jho Low, the fugitive financier who was the alleged mastermind of the scheme. Leissner used it to bankroll a lavish lifestyle, buying a US$15 million yacht, part of the Inter Milan soccer team and a Beverly Hills mansion.
“You could say this case is a critical illustration why these kinds of prosecutions matter, certainly for taxpayers and people who care about the rule of law and behaving correctly in the markets,” said Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University’s law school.
See also: Goldman letter helps sway judge who sent Leissner to prison over 1MDB
Leissner is asking to be spared prison, saying he provided crucial evidence against former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, Abu Dhabi sheiks and Goldman Sachs as part of a roadmap for prosecutors.
“In the process of telling the government and the world about 1MDB, I have had to publicly face the fact that I helped steal billions of dollars not just from individuals, but from an entire nation,” Leissner said in a letter to the judge.
Prosecutors, Goldman and a lawyer for Leissner, declined to comment beyond their court filings.
See also: Najib offers unreserved apology, regrets that 1MDB scandal happened under his watch
“Mr. Leissner’s serial lies, fraud and deception at Goldman Sachs continued from the day he first brought the transactions to the firm through the day he left,” the bank said in a letter to the court last week. “Mr. Leissner’s efforts in this regard are worthy of sanction, not praise.”
Leissner’s day of reckoning has been a long time coming. US District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York, has put off the sentencing at least a dozen times since his guilty plea. Legal experts say it could be attributed to Leissner’s ongoing cooperation or the government’s hope that Low would finally be arrested.
Ng’s trial was also delayed for nearly three years due to the pandemic before he was convicted in 2022. Leissner’s former colleague was sentenced to 10 years in prison and sent home to Malaysia where he testified at a corruption trial for former prime minister Najib last month.
Najib is on trial for a second time over corruption charges tied to 1MDB. Earlier this month, a US judge rejected Najib’s request to compel Leissner to answer questions under oath about the fraud. Najib denies wrongdoing.
Leissner was the government’s star witness against Ng. During 10 days on the stand it often seemed that he was the one on trial: he admitted helping set up offshore accounts to hide the looted 1MDB money, forged documents and revealed he was even a two-time bigamist.
The 1MDB fraud involved staggering sums. The US Justice Department has recovered at least US$1.4 billion in assets, including a Beverly Hills boutique hotel, artworks by Monet and Van Gogh and even a trio of “flawless” diamonds Low bought from a jeweler who also designed pieces for Beyonce.
While Goldman worked on Malaysian development projects, Leissner and Ng secretly became partners in Low’s schemes, Leissner said. From 2009 to 2014, the bankers arranged three 1MDB bond transactions, raising some US$6.5 billion with Goldman earning US$600 million.
To stay ahead of Singapore and the region’s corporate and economic trends, click here for Latest Section
At the same time, Leissner said he and Ng helped Low siphon billions of dollars from 1MDB and paid more than US$1.6 billion in bribes to government officials, including Najib, the former Malaysian prime minister, who is serving a six-year prison term.
Low has been charged in the US, Malaysia and Singapore over 1MDB. Low remains a fugitive and Singapore said last year that an Interpol Red Notice seeking his arrest remains in effect.
Before US charges against him were filed, in 2017, Low denied wrongdoing and said attempts to link him to the case were based on “unfounded assumptions.”
No matter what sentence the US judge imposes, Leissner potentially faces legal proceedings in southeast Asia. Malaysia’s Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said earlier this month that the nation has submitted an extradition request for Leissner.
In trying to stay out of jail in the US, Leissner’s lawyers argue he has grown up since his days at Goldman. Working with the government “has profoundly and permanently changed the course of his life.”
After pleading guilty, Leissner moved to Dallas, trading in his Instagram-worthy existence for a quieter life in the Lone Star State.
In court filings, he emphasised his work with a group called Freedom Shield Foundation on issues combating human trafficking and food insecurity and says he even assisted with “the rescue of several hundred US citizens stuck in Gaza.”
“He was always polite and attentive to others, a crucial quality when collaborating with partner churches,” Carrie Grace, the former executive director of Freedom Shield, which closed in 2023, said in an email to Bloomberg. “He consistently arrived early and stayed until the work was complete, often being among the last volunteers to leave.”
In court filings, Leissner also cited the fact that he surrendered more than 3.3 million shares in Celsius Holdings Inc., the popular energy drink maker, as part of his plea deal. The stake’s value grew exponentially, soaring at one point to be worth more than US$800 million and is currently worth more than US$368 million.
”I gave it up because it was the right thing to do,” he said.
But a star-studded group of people say the stock never belonged to Leissner in the first place. A legal battle is raging over the shares’ ownership, with Leissner’s estranged wife Kimora Lee Simmons, Def Jam Records founder Russell Simmons and Ng filing competing claims for the stock.
All of them portray Leissner in a less favourable light, saying that he lied or deceived them to buy the stock with their money. Lawyers for the parties declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to calls.
Eventually, Brodie, the judge who will sentence Leissner, will have to determine if any of them has a right to the stock, or if it should go to the government.
