Leissner got me a job, says Najib’s daughter

Nooryana Najwa Najib, the daughter of former prime minister Najib Razak, has admitted to being introduced to a job at an investment firm by Tim Leissner, one of two executives of scandal-hit Goldman Sachs who are at the centre of a major bribery case linked to 1MDB.

Responding to Leissner’s witness testimony during the trial in New York, Nooryana, who graduated in international politics, said Leissner introduced her to fundraising group TPG, adding that her educational background “would come in handy” in the business of raising investment funds.

“I interviewed for an intern analyst position at the TPG London office. Yes, an intern,” she wrote on Facebook.

“This meant you’re at the bottom of the food chain. Besides your core job scope you’re also responsible for the spadework. You’re the PowerPoint girl, the photocopying girl, the coffee girl and the delivery girl just to name a few.”

Nooryana also said that TPG had a strict compliance process, and that given her father’s position in the government, she was not allowed to participate in or work on any Malaysian investor accounts.

Leissner, Goldman’s former Southeast Asia chairman, is testifying against Roger Ng whom prosecutors say received millions of dollars in kickbacks for helping embezzle funds from 1MDB.

Ng has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.

Leissner said in his testimony on Feb 22 that Goldman was to get Najib’s children jobs at the bank in return for lucrative business deals.

He told the jury that Ng had emailed him saying they would “work on getting them to join GS”, although in the end he had only helped Najib’s daughter get a job at TPG.

Nooryana said meeting Leissner and Ng was “nothing more than an opportunity to learn more about Goldman Sachs’ demanding analyst programme”.

“Any college senior will attest that you need to do your groundwork and network with industry professionals in order to land a competitive job that matches your interests,” she added.

“Yes, I did inquire if Goldman Sachs had such interdisciplinary roles. I was prepared to interview for them. And yes, I was told that Goldman Sachs does business with the government of Malaysia so it could be a conflict of interest.”

After landing the job as an intern at TPG, she said, she had worked for some 11 months before being promoted to a full-time analyst following an internal performance review.

She said she was then transferred to the TPG Hong Kong office where she spent two and a half years working on the TPG Asia fundraising efforts.

“I subsequently left TPG in June 2015 to focus on my business and graduate school applications.”

Najib himself said in a Facebook post yesterday that none of his children had ever been offered a job or worked at Goldman.

He acknowledged that Leissner had introduced his daughter to a job opportunity at TPG but said this had nothing to do with the US bank.

“My daughter did work there for a year in a junior position,” he added. “That she worked at TPG Capital was not a secret. Her position there was not even a senior one – just as an investor relations professional.”