KUALA LUMPUR – The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued lifetime prohibition orders against former Goldman Sachs managing director Roger Ng Chong Hwa.
According to a statement by MAS today, the prohibition orders were issued following Ng’s conviction in a United States court for conspiring to launder money from the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) sovereign wealth fund.
“Under the prohibition orders, which took effect from September 5, Ng is permanently prohibited from performing any regulated activity under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and from providing any financial advisory services under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA).
“He is also permanently prohibited from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder, of any capital market and financial advisory services firm under the SFA and FAA.”
MAS added that Ng’s “severe misconduct” has given authorities reasons to believe that it would be contrary to the public interest to allow him to carry on business as a representative.
Besides being Goldman Sachs’ former managing director in Singapore, the Malaysian was also the firm’s head of investment banking in his home country.
His trial in the US revealed new details of the 1MDB scheme, in which fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, hustled billions of dollars out of 1MDB immediately after each bond deal Goldman completed for the fund, according to testimony from prosecution witnesses.
According to the US, soon after investigations into 1MDB were launched in Malaysia and Singapore, Ng also deleted a series of email accounts he had used to communicate with Low and others involved in the scheme.
During his trial, Ng claimed that his former boss and co-conspirator Tim Leissner as well as Low, who is a wanted person in several countries, were responsible for the multi-billion dollar fraud.
On April 8 last year, Ng was found guilty for his role in looting the funds, including conspiring to violate US anti-bribery laws and launder money.
Ng had then acquired a three-month postponement for his 10-year jail sentence initially slated to begin on May 4 this year, with his lawyer Marc Agnifilo informing the court that the delay was so that Ng could spend more time with his wife and 10-year-old daughter.
Ng also said he had suffered enough during the six months he had spent in a Malaysian prison before being sent to New York, claiming that he was held in squalid conditions and was sometimes chained to 20 other inmates.
Before he could begin his prison term on August 7, Ng was granted an additional last-minute postponement of 30 days to allow for talks between the US and Malaysian governments about his possible return here to assist in 1MDB investigations.
Agnifilo said last month that the Malaysian government is seeking Ng’s return under a previous agreement with the US.
US district judge Margo Brodie had also rejected Ng’s claims that he was unable to forfeit US$35.1 million (RM155.4 million) as the Malaysian government had taken “all of his money”, adding that the amount imposed is not “constitutionally excessive”. – September 5, 2023