NEW YORK: Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of helping loot billions of dollars from Malaysia's 1 MDB sovereign wealth fund.
A jury in Brooklyn City borough of Brooklyn found Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, guilty of helping his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money, launder the proceeds and bribe government officials to win business.
The charges stem from some US $6.5 billion in bonds that Goldman helped 1 MDB, which was founded in 2012 to finance development projects in Malaysia.
The US prosecutors said the US $4.5 billion was embezzled by officials, bankers and their associates in one of the biggest scandals in Wall Street history.
Funds were used to buy high-end real estate, jewelry and artwork, and finance the Hollywood film, The Wolf of Wall Street, according to the Department of Justice.
Ng and his co-defendants stole money from infrastructure and economic development projects to help the Malaysian people, according to US District Judge Margo Brodie, who imposed the sentence.
Brodie said that there is a need to deter crimes of pure greed.
Ng plans to appeal the sentence, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo told reporters after the hearing. Ng had pleaded not guilty and argued that the US $35 million in kickback payments he was accused of receiving was actually a return on an investment his wife had made.
Malaysian politics has been rocked by the 1 MDB scandal. Former Prime Minister Najib Razak is serving a 12 year prison sentence after being convicted by a Malaysian court of receiving $10 million from a former 1 MDB unit. Najib has denied wrongdoing.