Damning evidence has been adduced in the US criminal trial of ex-Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng relating to former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Former Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner testified under oath in court that “having the children of the prime minister work for us potentially would be seen not just by the prime minister as a positive but also all our other clients in the country would take notice of that and see that we are well connected”.

Najib's reply? Merely that his children had never worked at Goldman Sachs. The former premier misses the point that the mere act of using/taking advantage of his executive position to lobby for those jobs constitutes, in itself, an abuse of power.

Even if Najib’s children did not ultimately land jobs in Goldman Sachs, it has been established that Leissner had introduced Najib's youngest daughter, Nooryana, to TPG Capital in Hong Kong.

Let's be clear that 1MDB is a failed public entity which wasted billions of rakyat’s dollars. Using 1MDB's big bond deals, the fund-raising process of which is itself questionable, to seek favours at a 2009 meeting with ex-Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein for his own children is legally and morally corrupt

Reading between the lines, the suggestion is that three of Najib's children were seeking employment at Goldman Sachs in a deal that was brokered by now-fugitive Jho Low. How can Najib first claim that he did not know Jho Low, and then that Jho Low had no involvement with 1MDB?

I urge the relevant authorities to commence investigations using the newly revealed evidence.

Lee Chean Chung
Treasurer General
Parti Keadilan Rakyat