Najib on Jho Low’s list of people to be ‘paid off’, Leissner tells court

Former prime minister Najib Razak was one of several officials from Malaysia and Abu Dhabi listed out by fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho as needing to be “paid off” for the green light to raise and spend billions for state investment fund 1MDB, former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner told a US court this week.

Leissner, who is the star witness against his former colleague Roger Ng in the latter’s 1MDB corruption trial, related how Low, or Jho Low, had drawn several boxes on a piece of paper, each representing officials from Malaysia and UAE who needed to be bribed.

Besides Najib, another senior official on the list was Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the deputy prime minister of the UAE, whom Low said “would not get out of bed for less than US$100 million”.

Leissner further testified that Low had said payments at the top levels to both the Malaysian and UAE sides “had to be the same and be perceived to be the same”.

“In my mind, that meant both sides had to get US$100 million,” Leissner was quoted by Bloomberg as saying on Wednesday.

 Leissner was Ng’s supervisor at Goldman before turning witness against him for the government.

He is testifying after pleading guilty to money laundering and corruption charges, while Ng has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to commit money laundering and violating an anti-corruption 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.

Speaking about the 2012 meeting with Low, Leissner said he and Ng had agreed to keep quiet about the payments.

“Bribes had to be paid to make it happen, but we always kept it to the two of us,” he was quoted as saying.

Cross-examination of Leissner will not take place until next week due to the late disclosure of some evidence by prosecutors to the defence.