Goldman letter helps sway judge who sent Leissner to prison

FORMER Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Tim Leissner (picture) didn’t think he should go to prison for his role in the looting of the Malaysian investment fund 1MDB. Neither did US prosecutors, who praised his cooperation with their investigation.

But US Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York, paid more attention to what the bank had said in a letter to the court last week, which pushed back on the calls for leniency for Leissner. She sentenced the former banker to two years in prison Thursday, saying that without Leissner, the massive fraud may never have happened.

Leissner had faced as many as 25 years in prison over his involvement in the fraud that toppled the Malaysian government and led to investigations in six countries. Goldman paid more than $5 billion to settle global probes related to 1MDB, including $2.9 billion in the US in one of the largest penalties in history for a violation of US anti-bribery laws.

The former banker had pleaded guilty in 2018, admitting that he helped siphon billions of dollars from 1MDB. He agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and his testimony led to the conviction of one of his former colleagues, Roger Ng, as well as the fines against Goldman.

“In the end, your cooperation does not completely make up for the harm and devastation you knowingly caused through your conduct which was completely selfish,” Brodie said. “ So some punishment is warranted.”

In the letter last week, the bank said that Leissner had never taken responsibility for his actions.

“Leissner’s serial lies, fraud and deception at Goldman Sachs continued from the day he first brought the transactions to the firm through the day he left,” Goldman General Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler wrote. “Mr. Leissner’s efforts in this regard are worthy of sanction, not praise.”

Goldman’s court filing quickly became a focus of the sentencing hearing, with prosecutor Drew Rolle calling the letter “denigrating.”

The bank’s comments were “the equivalent of a getaway driver showing up at a cooperator’s sentencing and saying: ‘You know judge, we wouldn’t be in this mess if he hadn’t decided to rob a bank,’” Rolle said.

But Brodie interrupted the prosecutor, asking “why don’t you address Goldman Sachs’ letter.”

“I understand you to be saying the letter from Goldman Sachs was denigrating his cooperation. But I read the letter as saying ‘But for your conduct there would be no reason to cooperate.’”

The bank may still get the final word on Leissner, who left without speaking to reporters. As he walked out of the courtroom, he was handed a document. When asked by reporters what the document was and who issued it, the man who gave it to Leissner said it was a subpoena from Goldman Sachs.

A spokeswoman for Goldman and a lawyer for Leissner declined to comment on the subpoena. The bank said in its letter to Brodie that it continues to try to recoup $20.7 million it paid Leissner while he was working on 1MDB transactions. The bank won an award for that amount from a Finra panel in 2022, which was upheld by a federal judge in Manhattan a year later.

“Mr. Leissner has still not repaid one penny,” Ruemmler said in the letter. –BLOOMBERG