A jury for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York Friday convicted former Goldman Sachs Managing Director Ng Chong Hwa, also known as Roger Ng, of corruption charges connected to Malaysia’s 1MDB development fund. The decision came following an eight-week trial.

Ng was indicted in 2018. The jury found Ng guilty of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to several foreign officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, conspiring to violate the FCPA by circumventing the internal accounting controls of Goldman Sachs and conspiring to launder billions of dollars related to this scheme. Ng worked for Goldman Sachs from 2005 to May 2014. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison.

In regards to the verdict, US Attorney Breon Peace stated:

The scheme was massive in its scale – the defendant and his co-conspirators embezzled billions of dollars from the fund. It was brazen in its execution – Ng obtained lucrative business for his employer by bribing a dozen government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. And it was obscene in its greed. Today’s verdict is a victory for not only the rule of law, but also for the people of Malaysia for whom the fund was supposed to help, by raising money for projects to develop their country’s economy. The defendant and his cronies saw 1MDB not as an entity to do good for the people of Malaysia, but as a piggy bank to enrich themselves with piles of money siphoned from the fund.

1MDB is a Malaysian state-owned and controlled sovereign wealth fund. This fund was created to pursue investment and development projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people.

A Malaysian court convicted former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Rajak for money laundering, abuse of power and criminal breach of trust relating to the fund in 2020. On appeal, a Malaysian appellate court upheld Rajak’s conviction in December 2021. Goldman Sachs settled with the country for $3.9 billion in 2020 for its part in the 1MDB scandal.