Prison was 'brutal and distressing' says ex-Goldman Sachs banker who was locked up in Malaysia over the 1MDB scandal
- US authorities convicted an ex-Goldman Sachs banker of bribery and money laundering in the 1MDB scandal.
- Ng, who also spent time in a Malaysian prison, said conditions were "brutal and distressing."
A former Goldman Sachs employee who was locked up in Malaysia over the country's 1MDB scandal has described the prison conditions as being vermin-infested and "brutal and distressing."
Roger Ng, the former head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs in Malaysia, was convicted by the US authorities in April 2022 on bribery and money laundering charges in connection with the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund embezzlement case.
Ng, who faces up to 30 years in prison, has pleaded for leniency in a letter to Margo Brodie, a US district judge, on Saturday. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 9 at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
He is appealing for the court to not impose extra prison time for him in the US as he has been traumatized by his confinement in a Malaysian jail — an experience he says has left him physically and mentally vulnerable, according to court filings seen by Insider. Ng's lawyers argued in the Saturday filing that he has already served time "in objectively sub-human conditions in Malaysia."
In his letter, Ng described the harrowing conditions at Malaysia's Sungai Buloh prison, which is 30 miles from the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Ng spent six months there before being extradited to the US in May 2019.
The letter states Ng was placed in a solitary confinement cell with "a single hole in the ground for sanitation and a single water tap without windows, a bed, running water, or plumbing."
The cell was "always damp and vermin-infested" and he contracted infectious diseases from mosquitoes and rats, Ng said. On many occasions, he was in solitary confinement for as long as two weeks, he added.
Ng also said he was handcuffed and chained to 20 other inmates before being loaded into an "overcrowded police truck" for a "treacherous" high-speed ride to the courthouse.
"Six months in the Malaysian prison had a devastating effect mentally and physically," Ng wrote in his letter. "Until today, I find myself reclusive socially as I continue to deal with this brutal and distressing experience. The time without sunlight and in isolation made me lose my mind and become frightful."
The Malaysian Prison Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
FBI agent Ryan Collins had testified at Ng's trial in 2022 that the ex-banker — who joined Goldman Sachs in 2005 — had netted $3 million in annual salary and bonuses in 2012, according to The Edge, a Malaysian media outlet. Ng is the only Goldman employee to have been tried and convicted over the 1MDB case. Tim Leissner, another former Goldman employee implicated in the scandal, pleaded guilty.
Seen as one of the world's largest financial scandals in history, then US Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said at a global forum on asset recovery in Washington this was "kleptocracy at its worst."
The scandal foiled then prime minister Najib Razak's bid to secure a third term at the polls in 2018. In 2020, the former leader was sentenced to 12 years in prison for breach of trust, abuse of power, and money laundering in connection with 1MDB.