Najib pocketed RM3.2 billion from 1MDB, FBI agent tells US court

A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigator told the ongoing bribery trial of ex-banker Roger Ng that former prime minister Najib Razak stole US$756 million (about RM3.2 billion) of the total US$6.5 billion raised in the bond offerings arranged by Goldman Sachs.

Eric Van Dorn also named several other individuals who received the money, including fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho who took US$1.42 billion; Khadem al-Qubaisi, the former managing director of Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company who got US$472.8 million; former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner (US$73.4 million) and Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz (US$238 million).

Meanwhile, Van Dorn testified that Ng took US$35.1 million from two of the three bond transactions.

He said they were among 16 individuals tracked by him during investigations into the missing 1MDB funds.

Ng, a former Goldman Sachs executive, was charged with receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks for helping embezzle funds from 1MDB.

He has claimed trial to conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.

The charges stem from one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which US prosecutors say US$4.5 billion of the US$6.5 billion Goldman raised for 1MDB was diverted to government officials, bankers and their associates through bribes and kickbacks.

Najib, the Pekan MP, was found guilty in July 2020 of seven counts of criminal breach of trust, money laundering and abuse of power involving RM42 million in funds from 1MDB-linked unit SRC International.

On Dec 7 last year, the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction and sentence with the panel judges describing the transactions into his account as a “national embarrassment”.

Najib is currently appealing his case at the Federal Court.