1MDB trial: sex and the banker

1MDB trial: sex and the banker



I wonder how many people among Malaysia’s elite are shaking in their pants or having extraordinary bowel movements.

I wonder how many of our top politicians, bankers and businessmen are praying for a miracle – that Tim Leissner simply shuts up.

Whose name will Leissner, the former chairman of Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia, mention next in the trial of former Goldman Sachs Malaysia banker Roger Ng, which is taking place at the Brooklyn federal court in New York?

One of those he named is Tawfiq Ayman, husband of former Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz. Leissner said “the husband of the then governor at Bank Negara had received a bribe to make that happen”, when asked about 1MDB’s US$1 billion transfer to PetroSaudi International for their joint venture project.

“So, overnight, that money was transferred, which was unprecedented at that time. No approval was obtained that quickly from Bank Negara,” Leissner said.

Tawfiq immediately issued a denial, saying he had never met Leissner or Ng nor had he ever communicated with them. “I wish to categorically state that throughout my entire life, I have never received any bribes from anyone,” the businessman said.

Who else will be implicated in the scandalous international 1MDB web?

While some will hope their names never get mentioned in the trial of Ng, many of us are hungry for more revelations – the more titillating the better. And a dollop of salacity is always welcomed in dull lives.

In the long past, when anyone told me that high-flyers often indulged in multiple affairs, I would be sceptical. Over the years I have learnt (only from watching and reading, mind you) that money can do lots of things like buy you votes so you can win an election, help you pick up girlfriends or get the car of your dreams.

Malaysians have been witnessing this in the last few years. For instance, we have all seen and heard of wives of some politicians having or having had lots and lots of expensive handbags or boxes of jewellery stashed away in their apartments or houses. What do they do with all those handbags?

Seeing such extravagance, I think I know why these people are called “filthy rich”. It is because they joyfully flaunt their wealth while thousands around them live in poverty. Take it as a new definition, if you want.

A former colleague once told me that the wife of a prominent politician had 22 or 23 bags with her as she boarded a plane back to Malaysia from London. The journalist was part of a team of media people who had accompanied the politician to Europe.

Leissner is the latest to show us that cash, indeed, is king. Or rather, money can enable you to live the life of a king. The man who pleaded guilty in 2018 to a charge of conspiracy to violate US anti-bribery laws and to conspiring to launder money, is hoping for leniency in punishment by turning star witness in the trial of Ng.

Leissner, who lived a lavish lifestyle, testified that he had had “several” extramarital affairs. While that is interesting in itself, for Malaysians the more salacious revelation was that he had had an affair with the CEO of a local media company from 2003 to 2013.

Leissner, in fact, told the court he had been blackmailed into buying a US$10 million house for her in London, and that the money had come from his “1MDB work”.

We know that there are always two sides to a story and I’m waiting to hear hers.

But I don’t know of anyone who has not googled the name of the CEO to see how she looks like. Her name, in fact, was trending on the day of the revelation as one of the top searches.

But the CEO is not the only Malaysian Leissner is alleged to have had an affair with. Ng’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo told US jurors on Feb 14 that Leissner had had an “illicit” relationship with an executive of 1MDB itself.

Ng has been charged with conspiring to violate US anti-money-laundering laws and scheming to siphon billions of dollars from 1MDB. He is the only former Goldman Sachs employee to stand trial in the US for the 1MDB scandal that brought notoriety to Malaysia and helped cause the fall of then prime minister Najib Razak.

Prosecutors say Ng and Leissner allegedly helped Malaysian fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, embezzle funds from 1MDB in exchange for millions in kickbacks.

In telling the jurors not to trust Leissner, Agnifilo said the former “used people” and that he had been “married to two different women at the same time, twice”.

Leissner married three times, the last in 2012 to model Kimora Lee Simmons. However, they are now separated.

Now if Leissner had such a luxurious lifestyle and flings with “several” women to boot, imagine how Jho Low would have lived. Especially if you consider the description of Leissner as a “mini version of Low” by Ng’s lawyer Agnifilo.

Here’s an example, just so we get a taste of it: Low celebrated his birthday in 2012 in a converted airplane hangar in Vegas and his guests included celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. And guess who jumped out of a cake that night and serenaded Low? Britney Spears.

I wasn’t born to a rich father like Jho Low. And I got into a profession that just pays the bills. I wonder if it’s too late for me to apply for a position at Goldman Sachs? What other lucrative position or firm should I look at?

Hello? Anyone needs a CEO? I’m not asking for much, just US$20 million a year, which is lower than the US$35 million pay package of Goldman Sachs Group Inc CEO David Solomon for 2021. I’m not greedy, as you can see.

What if, after becoming rich, I get caught giving or receiving kickbacks? Oh dear! I suppose the only thing to do then would be to make representations to the attorney-general to drop the charges, or at least reduce them. After all there are quite a few well-known precedents in Malaysia.

If only I was filthy rich, imagine what I could do. I could be throwing parties in Las Vegas or Langkawi. And just to flaunt my wealth, I could pay celebrities to attend my parties, as Jho Low did. I’ve heard some men say that “wine and women will be heaven”, so perhaps I’ll give heaven a try.

Imagine, sitting beside the beach, taking in the lovely breeze as my girlfriends/mistresses massage my neck and back while another two lovely lasses bring me durians and mangosteens. Ah! What a life! (Please don’t tell my wife).

Imagine, sitting down to ponder the big questions in life – like whether to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime.

But then again, look where all the money in the world landed Low, Leissner and the woman with all those handbags. I think I’ll stick to journalism. At least I won’t have abrupt bowel movements and my pants will remain unsoiled.