Ex-Goldman Banker Was Told Kushner Would Stop 1MDB Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Tim Leissner said that Malaysian financier Jho Low claimed to have a “dialogue” with Jared Kushner and others in then-President Donald Trump's inner circle to shut down the U.S. investigation of the 1MDB scandal.

Testifying in the trial of his former Goldman colleague Roger Ng, Leissner said Tuesday that he met with Low in Hong Kong after Ng's 2017 arrest in Singapore. According to Leissner, Low said he had discussed the matter with Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, and had support for a “global settlement” by which Ng, Low and Leissner would avoid criminal charges over 1MDB.

“He said he had had dialogue with administration of Trump, that he had met with Jared Kushner in Beijing and had worked with the president and his administration who were in support of a settlement around basically everybody around Jho,” Leissner said on the stand in federal court in Brooklyn.

“It would be a settlement of a monetary nature, of several billion dollars” that Low indicated he would pay on his own, Leissner said. “The payment that would forever settle the 1MDB issue.”

Kushner never met with Low or spoke to him during his time in the White House, a person familiar with Kushner's schedule said on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Drew Rolle asked if Leissner had any independent knowledge as to whether Low was telling the truth about settlement discussions with the Trump administration.

“I had no independent information, sir,” Leissner answered.

Illegal Lobbying

Contact with Kushner would have been a major step up in terms of Low's attempts to get the Trump White House to tamp down his 1MDB exposure. Top Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy pleaded guilty in 2020 to illegally lobbying the administration on Low's behalf. Broidy said Low paid him $6 million with the promise of a $75 million success fee if the Justice Department dropped its investigation.

Trump pardoned Broidy before he left office.

According to Leissner, Low also said he hired former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Trump confidante at the time, to be his lawyer in settlement negotiations. Low claimed he promised Christie a $10 million success fee if the case was resolved without criminal charges, Leissner said.

Christie, who represented Low in civil forfeiture actions in California, denied any involvement with the criminal case in a statement on Tuesday.

“There were never any discussions between me and any members of the Trump administration that the criminal investigation would be dropped or any charges against Mr. Low or anyone else dismissed in exchange for payment to the government,” the former governor said. “Nor was there any agreement for a legal success fee to me to negotiate such a result.”

Ng, 49, is accused of conspiring with Leissner to help Low divert hundreds of millions of dollars from three deals totaling $6.5 billion for the sovereign wealth fund, through kickbacks and bribes to Malaysian and Abu Dhabi officials. Low eventually paid the Justice Department $700 million but was indicted in 2018 and remains a fugitive. According to prosecutors, Low paid Leissner more than $60 million in kickbacks with Ng collecting about $35 million.

Leissner, who pleaded guilty and admitted his role in the scheme in 2018, is now the prosecution's star witness at Ng's trial. Ng's defense team claims he tried to warn Goldman about Low and that Leissner is trying to cast blame on him in order to receive a reduced sentence.

‘Get Roger Out'

Goldman admitted to its role in the 1MDB scandal in October 2020 and agreed to pay more than $5 billion to end multiple international probes into its fundraising for the scandal-plagued Malaysian fund.

Leissner said Tuesday that, in a 2017 separate conversation, Ng's wife told him Low had reassured her that he was working White House connections to win her husband's release.

“She said Jho had gotten help from the Trump administration to get Roger out,” Leissner testified.

At the Hong Kong meeting, Low said the deal would only apply to people that remained loyal to him and “were part of that circle,” Leissner testified, noting that the Malaysian financier specifically excluded a 1MDB lawyer who he believed had been secretly speaking to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.