Goldman Sachs requested a Brooklyn federal choose to throw the e book at a disgraced former associate who price the Wall Avenue funding banking big billions of {dollars} in fines over a international bribery scandal.
The Wall Avenue big’s high lawyer fired off a letter on Thursday to US District Courtroom Decide Margo Brodie condemning Timothy Leissner, the 53-year-old German-born banker, for having “extensively lied to and deceived many people” on the firm.
Leissner, Goldman’s former chief of Southeast Asia operations, is because of be sentenced subsequent week after he pleaded responsible in 2018 to crimes dedicated as a part of bilking the Malaysia sovereign wealth fund, known as 1MDB, out of almost $3 billion.
He faces a most jail sentence of 25 years — although Justice Division prosecutors are asking Brodie to go simple on him when handing down her sentence on Could 29.
“In committing those crimes, Mr. Leissner deceived his colleagues for years, culminating in the only criminal case filed against Goldman Sachs in its 156-year history,” Goldman normal counsel Kathryn H. Ruemmler wrote in a letter to the choose.
“He has never acknowledged, let alone accepted responsibility for, the extraordinary harm and reputational damage that he caused to Goldman Sachs and his many partners and colleagues who trusted him.”
The Goldman lawyer wrote that the financial institution “take[s] issue with” Leissner’s “attempt to explain his misconduct by reference to the supposed pressure that Goldman Sachs put on him to generate business.”
Leisser, in response to Ruemmler, has additionally “opposed Goldman Sachs’ efforts to claw back compensation he received while working on the 1MDB bond transactions, even though Goldman Sachs’ right to recover that compensation was plainly stated in Mr. Leissner’s employment agreement.”
In October 2023, a Manhattan federal choose ordered Leissner to pay Goldman $20.7 million in restitution, however the financial institution says it hasn’t been “repaid one penny.”
Ruemmler’s letter was written in response to a sentencing memo submitted by Justice Division prosecutors asking the choose for leniency, citing Leissner’s intensive cooperation within the investigation.
In accordance with Justice Division attorneys, Leissner’s assist led to the conviction of his former colleague Roger Ng and contributed to Goldman Sachs paying a file $2.9 billion penalty.
“While Mr. Leissner only testified in a single jury trial, United States v. Roger Ng, the information he provided touched scores of rich and powerful individuals: sheiks from Abu Dhabi with immense wealth and state power, the former prime minister of Malaysia… and Goldman Sachs, the richest investment bank in the world,” DOJ prosecutors wrote.
They added: “That reality renders additional punishment from this Court unnecessary for Mr. Leissner. A time served sentence is sufficient but not greater than necessary for Tim Leissner.”
Leissner had spearheaded three bond offers totaling $6.5 billion for 1MDB in 2012 and 2013.
As a substitute of funding growth tasks, over $2.7 billion was embezzled to bribe officers and finance extravagant life, together with luxurious actual property, artwork and even the manufacturing of Hollywood movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
Leissner admitted to personally pocketing between $50 million and $60 million in kickbacks.
He additionally confessed to forging paperwork and creating faux e-mail accounts to deceive colleagues and his then-wife, Kimora Lee Simmons, about his marital standing.
The Publish has sought remark from the Justice Division and Leissner’s lawyer, Henry Mazurek.
Mazurek advised Bloomberg Information on Thursday that “the chutzpah of Goldman Sachs’s letter to the court today is astounding.”
“Mr. Leissner spent the last several years cooperating with the Department of Justice to expose the corporate culture and institutional greed which fueled the behavior that corrupted the 1MDB project,” Mazurek mentioned in an announcement.
Goldman declined to remark.
