1MDB trial: Leissner reveals affair with ex-Astro CEO Rohana Rozhan, buys her silence with US$10mil home
London property gifted after she threatened to expose my involvement, says ex-Goldman Sachs banker

Updated 1 hour ago · Published on 23 Feb 2022 11:12AM

[UPDATED] 1MDB trial: Leissner reveals affair with ex-Astro CEO Rohana Rozhan, buys her silence with US$10mil home

Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner’s in his testimony in the 1MDB trial disclosed his affair with ex-CEO Rohana Rozhan (pic) saying she threatened to expose his involvement with 1MDB if he did not buy her the US$10 million London home. – Nikkei Asian Review pic, February 23, 2022
KUALA LUMPUR – Former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner’s testimony in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) trial in the United States turned salacious after he revealed having an affair with Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd former CEO Rohana Rozhan and the S$10 million (RM31.1 million) home he gifted her.

He alleged that he bought her a US$10 million (RM41.85 million) home in London in 2013 after she had threatened to expose his involvement with 1MDB and that the relationship was from 2003 to 2013, reported Bloomberg.

“Ms Rozhan was very upset that I was ending our relationship to be with my future wife, with Kimora,” Leissner was quoted as telling the jury, referring to his wife Kimora Lee Simmons.

“If I didn’t buy her a house, she would tell the authorities about my involvement in the 1MDB scandal. She was threatening to expose me. At the time, 2013, I was very fearful of that.”

He added that he disclosed his affair with Rohana to his then boss, former Goldman Asia head Richard Gnodde.

Leissner claimed that it was a sensitive issue because the investment bank had businesses with Astro and Gnodde told him “be careful about relationships with clients”.

“Pretty much everybody in our Southeast Asia territory knew it.”

Rohana left Astro in 2019.

Leissner is the prosecution’s star witness in the criminal trial involving former Goldman Sachs colleague Roger Ng. Leissner also pleaded guilty in 2018 to a count of conspiracy to violate US anti-bribery laws and to conspiring to launder money.

Ng is the only former Goldman banker to go on trial for his involvement in the 1MDB scandal.

In his testimony today, Leissner also dropped a bombshell revelation on former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who allegedly wanted to secure jobs for his three children with Goldman.

Leissner, 52, testified that his ex-boss Lloyd Blankfein’s meeting with Najib in 2009 came with an agenda and it took place before the bank’s mega bond deals for 1MDB.

He added that he was told by Ng that Najib would be in New York to visit his children for the Thanksgiving holiday.

He alleged that fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, said it would be good for Blankfein and Najib to meet.

Leissner said after a meeting with Najib, Ng said the Malaysian prime minister wanted jobs for his children at Goldman.

“Just met PM’s three children at his apartment, am with Jho at his apartment,” Leissner read to the jury from an email.

He said Ng added: “Meeting him again tomorrow and will work at getting his three children to join Goldman Sachs.”

Leissner then said he did not express any qualms as “the prime minister of Malaysia was potentially great business for us, so I felt having the children of the prime minister work for us would potentially be seen, not just for the prime minister”, but “all others in Asia would take notice”.

He added that he later helped get Najib’s daughter a job at TPG, which is an American investment company.

Leissner last week told the court that it was “greed and ambition” that motivated his involvement in the 1MDB deal.

He said bringing 1MDB’s multi-million-dollar deal with the United States investment bank “instantaneously made us heroes”.

He alleged that Ng had in 2008 fostered a relationship with fugitive Low, who was then the intermediary between Goldman and 1MDB, Reuters reported.

It later led to Goldman selling US$6.5 billion in bonds for 1MDB and making US$600 million in fees.

“My greed and ambition took over,” Leissner was quoted as saying, and that the repercussions had destroyed his life.

“The main focus for me was whatever it takes to get these transactions done for Goldman Sachs.”

Leissner also testified that Low made a list of people in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi who needed to be bribed to ensure that the 1MDB plan was approved. Among the names in his testimony were Najib and United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour.

A day before, Alex Cohen testified in Ng’s trial. Cohen is the chief financial officer of Strategic Group, an entertainment and marketing company that organised parties for Low.

He told the court that millions of dollars drained in the 1MDB scandal were spent by Low on luxurious parties and celebrity guests.

According to Bloomberg, Cohen testified that Low had provided Strategic Group with at least 25% of its profits in 2012, paying US$5,000 just for the talent scouting for one particular event – all with the roughly US$700 million allegedly sourced by Low from 1MDB.

The jury in Brooklyn, New York, also heard about invoices from a Las Vegas party for Low, where expenses such as food, beverages, “talent” and “top quality models” added up to more than US$3.6 million.

Ng, 49, is facing accusations of pocketing millions of dollars in kickbacks in the 1MDB deal, with allegations of money laundering and violating anti-bribery laws.

Low was charged in the US in 2018, however, he remains a fugitive. – The Vibes, February 23, 2022



https://www.thevibes.com/articles/news/5488...ormer-astro-ceo

This post has been edited by jvcpcv55: Feb 23 2022, 01:44 PM

Lets hear from Datok Rozhan to deny the allegations or send in some hot lawyers to sue him...its getting juicer.

Former Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner testified in a US court yesterday that he bought a US$10 million home in London for former Astro CEO Rohana Rozhan, with whom he was having an affair, after she threatened to expose his involvement in the 1MDB scandal.

Leissner, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to conspiring to launder money and violate US anti-bribery laws, said he bought Rohana the house in London in 2013 as she was “very upset” that he was ending their 10-year relationship to be with Kimora Lee Simmons, whom he later married.

“If I didn’t buy her a house, she would tell the authorities about my involvement in the 1MDB scandal. She was threatening to expose me. At the time, 2013, I was very fearful of that,” he was quoted as saying in a report by Bloomberg.


Leissner was chief of Goldman’s Southeast Asia operation and is testifying in the criminal trial of Roger Ng, the bank’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia.

He previously said that Ng was Goldman’s lead banker on 1MDB and had cultivated a relationship since 2008 with Penang businessman Low Taek Jho, who was the key intermediary between the bank and 1MDB.

Prosecutors have accused Ng of receiving millions of dollars in kickbacks for helping embezzle funds from 1MDB. Ng himself has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.

Speaking in court yesterday, Leissner said his relationship with Rohana was a “sensitive issue” as the bank did business with Astro.

He also said that his boss at the time, former Asia head Richard Gnodde, had urged him to “be careful about relationships with clients”.

Nonetheless, he said the affair had lasted from 2003 to 2013.

Ng’s lawyers previously sought to portray Leissner as a socialite who stole to finance a lavish lifestyle.


Prosecutors however said that Leissner’s testimony would be backed up by other evidence.

“He’ll give you an inside view of this bribery and money laundering scheme,” prosecutor Brent Wible was quoted as saying by Reuters.

https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2022/02/23...1mdb-blackmail/

Sibeh expensive yo

bossku suci murni

Gold digger

he said the affair had lasted from 2003 to 2013.

10 years relationship / US$10 million

1 year USD 1 million

1 day USD 2,739

1 hour USD 114

1 minute USD 1.90

1 second USD 0.03

Those involved pleaded guilty but the person charged cakap sendiri innocent. Then post fb say orang fitnah dia lol

1 day Rm11k
Massat 36 rounds.

wah, didn't know Rohana Rozhan was so thirsty. where is she now anyway?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohana-rozhan-7...nalSubdomain=my

ask her yourself

don't use linkedin

ふふふふふふ~~

great

10 years relationship tetiba kena dump for another. marah liao, kikis jangan tak kikis but if she knew about 1MDB for the get-go tar her with the same brush as the others.

so in the end, najib's kids got those jobs or not?

this job for najib children, did they really do the works or just auto payment receive each month with no work to do.

However, Leissner was quoted as saying that he only helped Najib’s daughter Nooryana Najwa get a job at TPG Capital.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/202...eals-ex/2043378

too bad so many malaysians wont even hear about this, and they only listen to the politicians side of the story

https://www.penews.com/articles/tpg-malaysi...buyout-20140206

TPG Hires Malaysian Prime Minister's Daughter for Asian Role
Buyout firm looks to high-profile family for Asia investor relations appointment

By Sonja Cheung and Shasha Dai
Thursday February 6, 2014 6:23 pm
TPG Capital hired the daughter of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak as one of its investor relations professionals in Asia, said people familiar with the situation.

Nooryana Najwa Najib, one of two children from the prime minister's second marriage, is still earning her stripes as a private equity newcomer after graduating from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., in 2011. She holds a bachelor of science degree in foreign service, according to the university. The children of politicians have long found a path into major banks and private equity firms, but such hires have come under more scrutiny since news last year that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was being investigated by U.S. and international regulators for its hiring in Asia. U.S. investigators are focused on whether the children of Chinese officials may have been hired in order to win business for the bank, according to The Wall Street Journal.

J.P. Morgan declined to comment.

TPG has taken the precaution of excluding Ms. Najib from involvement in any business the firm has in Malaysia, said an investor whose firm has previously backed TPG's Asian funds.

Ms. Najib couldn't be reached for comment.

Investor relations staff can play an important role in helping to raise capital and TPG is raising its sixth pan-Asian fund. The Fort Worth, Texas, firm spent most of last year struggling to secure new capital in the face of competition from other U.S. buyout houses, such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. which was fundraising around the same time. Investors said TPG is roughly at the $2 billion mark for what could be a $3 billion or $3.5 billion fund, which would bring the firm in shy of its original $4 billion target.

In contrast, KKR secured a $6 billion final close for its second Asian-focused fund, KKR Asian II Fund, in July last year.

In China, "princelings" who are sons or daughters of political heavyweights are often employed at private equity houses to open doors to new deals, while the family name often draws investors' attention. China's princeling funds include Nepoch Capital, which was set up by the son of an ex-Politburo member, and New Horizon Capital, a private-equity firm co-founded by Winston Wen, the son of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Article continues below


TPG has made several crucial hires in Asia in recent months. Last year, the firm tapped Senior Partner Tim Dattels to co-head its Asian operations, as a replacement to managing partner Stephen Peel. Hong Kong-based Mr. Peel previously oversaw TPG's activity in China and India. More recently, TPG last month appointed Ganen Sarvanathan, from Malaysian government investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd., as a partner and managing director in its Asian business.

In the last couple of years, Southeast Asia has become more important to private equity firms, which are betting on those countries' economic growth prospects, an expanding middle class and increased consumer spending power. Private equity firm Northstar Group, which counts TPG as one of its shareholders, is one general partner that invests in the region, and was set out to raise a $1 billion fund last year.



This post has been edited by jvcpcv55: Feb 23 2022, 03:15 PM