Ex-Goldman Banker Roger Ng’s 1MDB Trial Delayed Over Omicron

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. judge presiding over the case of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc banker Roger Ng delayed the start of his fraud trial to Feb. 7 from Jan. 24, citing the recent spike of omicron variant Covid cases.

Ng, a former managing director for Goldman in Malaysia, is accused of conspiring with financier Jho Low and others to embezzle at least $2.7 billion from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn, New York, on Friday said she was reluctant to delay the trial and noted that her postponement was shorter than the one month requested by the government.   

“If the virus peaks in January, we will be in the downward end of it, and it should be relatively safe and be able to conduct the trial safely,” she said.

Ng’s trial, at one time scheduled for March 2021, has already been subject to substantial delay. 

The former banker will be the first person to go to trial in the U.S. in the scandal. Goldman itself agreed to pay billions of dollars in civil and criminal penalties for its role, and Ng’s former boss, Tim Leissner, pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against him. 

Ng claims he warned Goldman against working with Low and that Leissner, not him, drove the bank’s work for 1MDB.

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