Ex-Goldman banker given 10 years in prison for role in 1MDB fraud scandal

Roger Ng, the former Goldman Sachs banker at the center of the multibillion 1MDB embezzlement scandal, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday, placing a capstone on one of the largest and most bizarre financial frauds of the past decade.

Ng is the only Goldman banker to have been tried and convicted in the scandal. The bank agreed to pay $2.9bn to settle a US-led investigation into its role in 2020.

In a lengthy sentencing hearing defense attorneys requested that Judge Margo Brodie release Ng on time served. They argued that Ng had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after being held in Malaysian jail where he contracted rat- and mosquito-borne diseases.

But US prosecutors, who had asked for a 15-year sentence, argued that the $35m Ng received in the scheme had not, to their certainty, been recovered.

The Department of Justice alleged that Ng acted as crucial link between 1MDB and Jho Low, a Malaysian financier now believed to be living in China.

That same year, revelers including Low, DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx and Wolf of Wall Street co-star Jonah Hill flew to Australia and Las Vegas in time to celebrate new year twice.