Malaysian Financier Low Taek Jho, Also Known As "Jho Low,"¯ and Former Banker Ng Chong Hwa,
Also Known As "Roger Ng,"¯ Indicted for Conspiring to Launder Billions of Dollars in Illegal
Proceeds and to Pay Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Bribes

Thursday, November 1, 2018

A three-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in federal court in the Eastern District of
New York charging Low Taek Jho, 36, also known as "Jho Low,"¯ and Ng Chong Hwa, 51, also known
as "Roger Ng,"¯ with conspiring to launder billions of dollars embezzled from 1Malaysia
Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia's investment development fund, and conspiring to violate the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to various Malaysian and Abu Dhabi
officials.   As part of the three-count indictment, Ng is also charged with conspiring to violate
the FCPA by circumventing the internal accounting controls of a major New York-headquartered
financial institution (Financial Institution), which underwrote more than $6 billion in bonds
issued by 1MDB in three separate bond offerings in 2012 and 2013, while Ng was employed at the
Financial Institution as a managing director.   Ng was arrested earlier today in Malaysia,
pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant issued at the request of the United States.   Low remains
at large.

Also unsealed today in federal court in the Eastern District of New York was the guilty plea of
Tim Leissner, 48, the former Southeast Asia Chairman and participating managing director of the
Financial Institution, to a two-count criminal information charging Leissner with conspiring to
launder money and conspiring to violate the FCPA by both paying bribes to various Malaysian and
Abu Dhabi officials and circumventing the internal accounting controls of the Financial
Institution while he was employed by it.   According to court filings, Leissner has been ordered
to forfeit $43.7 million as a result of his crimes.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department's Criminal
Division, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, Assistant
Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. of the FBI New York Field Office, and Special Agent in
Charge R. Damon Rowe of IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Los Angeles Field Office announced the
charges.

1MDB is a Malaysian state-owned and controlled fund created to pursue investment and development
projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people.   As alleged in court filings,
between approximately 2009 and 2014, as 1MDB raised money to fund its projects, billions of
dollars were misappropriated and fraudulently diverted from 1MDB, including funds 1MDB raised in
2012 and 2013 through three bond transactions that it executed with the Financial Institution.  
As part of the scheme, and as alleged in court filings, Low, Ng, Leissner, and others conspired to
bribe government officials in Malaysia, including at 1MDB, and Abu Dhabi to obtain and retain
lucrative business for the Financial Institution, including the 2012 and 2013 bond deals.   They
also allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds of their criminal conduct through the U.S.
financial system by purchasing, among other things, luxury residential real estate in New York
City and elsewhere, and artwork from a New York-based auction house, and by funding major
Hollywood films.

As alleged, Low's close relationships with high-ranking government officials in Malaysia and Abu
Dhabi were central to the scheme.   Ng, Leissner, and others at the Financial Institution
allegedly knew Low was close to these government officials, including a high-ranking Malaysian
government official who had authority to approve 1MDB business decisions (Malaysian Official
#1).   According to allegations in court filings, beginning in approximately 2009 and continuing
through 2014, Low, Ng, Leissner, and the other co-conspirators used Low's relationships to
obtain and retain business for the Financial Institution through the promise and payment of
hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes, including to ensure 1MDB awarded the Financial
Institution a role on three bond transactions known internally at the Financial Institution as
"Project Magnolia,"¯ "Project Maximus,"¯ and "Project Catalyze."¯   As a result of its
work for 1MDB during that time, the Financial Institution allegedly received approximately $600
million in fees and revenues along with increased reputational prestige.   At the same time, Ng,
Leissner and others allegedly received large bonuses and enhanced their own reputations at the
Financial Institution.   In total, according to allegations in court filings, more than $2.7
billion was misappropriated from 1MDB and Low, Ng, Leissner and others conspired to launder this
money through the U.S. financial system to pay bribes to foreign officials and for the personal
benefit of themselves and their relatives.

In early 2012, according to allegations in court filings, following a series of meetings in
Malaysia and the United Kingdom, Low, Leissner, Ng and the co-conspirators agreed that, with the
assistance of the Financial Institution, 1MDB would issue $1.75 billion in bonds guaranteed by an
entity wholly-owned and controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi.   Low allegedly explained to
Ng, Leissner, and others at the time that, to complete the transaction, bribes would need to be
paid to officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi and hundreds of millions of dollars were allegedly
paid to officials in these countries.   Court filings also allege that Low, Ng, Leissner, and
other co-conspirators knew that Low intended to use funds misappropriated from the bond
transaction to bribe and influence the officials to obtain the necessary approvals and any
additional assistance to execute Project Magnolia for the Financial Institution and to pay
kickbacks to Ng, Leissner, and others.

In or around March 2012, 1MDB allegedly selected the Financial Institution to be the sole
bookrunner and arranger for Project Magnolia.   As part of the scheme, Low and other
co-conspirators allegedly enlisted the assistance of 1MDB officials, promising to pay them bribes
and kickbacks.   In one instance, as alleged in court filings, in connection with Project
Magnolia, Low told one 1MDB official that he would "[g]ive [the official a] big present"¯ when
the transaction closed.   According to allegations in court documents, the fact that bribes and
kickbacks were being paid in connection with Project Magnolia was known to Ng, Leissner, and

other employees of the Financial Institution.

After Project Magnolia closed on or about May 21, 2012, more than $500 million of the bond
proceeds were allegedly misappropriated and diverted from 1MDB through numerous wire transfers to
bank accounts in the name of shell companies beneficially owned and controlled by Low, Leissner,
Ng, and other co-conspirators, including a high-level official at the Abu Dhabi entity that
guaranteed the Project Magnolia bonds and a close relative of Malaysian Official #1.   As alleged,
the bond proceeds transferred to Malaysian Official #1's close relative were later used by the
relative's U.S. motion picture company to assist in the production of the film "The Wolf of
Wall Street."¯  

Court filings further allege that from May 2012 and continuing through 2013, Low, Ng, Leissner,
and their co-conspirators continued to work to ensure that the Financial Institution obtained and
retained additional 1MDB business, including the bond transactions known as "Project Maximus"¯
and "Project Catalyze,"¯ which transactions generated substantial fees and revenues for the
Financial Institution.   As alleged, although both transactions were designed to raise more than
$4 billion for 1MDB's investment and development projects, Low, Ng, Leissner, and other
co-conspirators used the transactions to further the criminal scheme, ultimately laundering
hundreds of millions of dollars of diverted funds from these transactions into bank accounts
beneficially owned and controlled by, among others, the co-conspirators, including Low, Leissner
and officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.   As alleged in court filings, throughout this time, Ng,
Leissner, and at least one other employee of the Financial Institution knew that Low would and did
pay bribes to influence officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi to obtain the necessary approvals to
execute Project Maximus and Project Catalyze.   Low, Ng, Leissner, and others also allegedly knew
that large portions of the bond proceeds would be illegally diverted to themselves and others,
including to foreign government officials.

As part of the scheme alleged in court filings, Low, Ng, Leissner and other co-conspirators again
used a series of wire transfers to launder billions of dollars of misappropriated and fraudulently
diverted funds from Project Maximus and Project Catalyze.   Following the close of Project
Maximus, approximately $790 million of the bond proceeds was allegedly transferred through a
series of shell company accounts beneficially owned and controlled by Low, Leissner and others,
including accounts of officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.   In particular,

Leissner and Ng allegedly caused millions of dollars of these funds to be transferred to accounts
of 1MDB officials or relatives of such officials in exchange for their assistance in obtaining and
retaining business for the Financial Institution.

Over $35 million of the bond proceeds also allegedly was used by a co-conspirator to help acquire
a condominium in New York, New York beneficially owned by Low.

Similarly, according to allegations in court filings, after Project Catalyze closed in March 2013,
more than $1 billion of diverted funds, traceable to the transaction, were laundered, at Low's
direction, to bank accounts in the name of entities beneficially owned and controlled by Low,
Leissner, and others, including 1MDB officials.   As alleged, more than $4 million of the funds
were transferred to a bank account beneficially owned by a relative of Ng.

Additionally, as part of the scheme, Low allegedly used a shell company account to receive more
than $1 billion of the Project Catalyze bond proceeds and spent approximately $137 million of
these funds to purchase works of art at a high-end art auction house in New York, New York.  

The Financial Institution continued to seek business from 1MDB after Project Catalyze.   As
alleged, Leissner and others were particularly focused on securing a role for the Financial
Institution on a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of 1MDB's energy assets.   To influence
certain officials to award the Financial Institution a role in the proposed IPO, Low and Leissner
allegedly continued to pay bribes to certain officials at 1MDB.

For example, as alleged, in an online chat between Low and Leissner in June 2014, Low and Leissner
discussed the need to "suck up to"¯ a 1MDB official and to send "cakes"¯ to a person
believed to be the wife of Malaysian Official #1.   A few months after this chat, a bank account
owned and controlled by Leissner and his relative was used to transfer approximately $4.1 million
to a high-end New York jeweler, in part, to pay for gold jewelry for the wife of Malaysian
Official #1.

The charges in the indictment as to Low and Ng are merely allegations, and those defendants are
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The investigation was jointly conducted by the FBI's International Corruption Unit and IRS-CI.  
The government's criminal case is being handled by the Criminal Division's Money Laundering
and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) and Fraud Section and the Business and Securities Fraud Section
of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.   MLARS Trial Attorneys
Jennifer E. Ambuehl, Woo S. Lee, and Mary Ann McCarthy, Fraud Section Trial Attorneys Katherine A.
Nielsen and Nikhila Raj, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacquelyn M. Kasulis and Drew Rolle of the
Eastern District of New York are prosecuting the case.   Additional Criminal Division Trial
Attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorneys within U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Eastern District
of New York and Central District of California have provided valuable assistance with various
aspects of this investigation, including with

and criminal forfeitures.

The Criminal Division's Office of International Affairs provided critical assistance in this
case.   The Department also appreciates the significant cooperation and assistance provided by the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
along with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.   The Department also appreciates the significant
assistance provided by the Attorney General's Chambers of Malaysia, the Royal Malaysian Police,
the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General's Chambers of Singapore, the
Singapore Police Force-Commercial Affairs Division, the Office of the Attorney General and the
Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland, the judicial investigating authority of the Grand Duchy
of Luxembourg, and the Criminal Investigation Department of the Grand-Ducal Police of Luxembourg.

The International Unit of the Criminal Division's MLARS is home to the Kleptocracy Asset
Recovery Initiative"”a team of dedicated prosecutors working to prosecute individuals and forfeit
the proceeds of foreign official corruption that has affected the U.S. financial system and, where
appropriate, return those proceeds to benefit the people harmed by these acts of corruption and
abuse of office.   MLARS's Bank Integrity Unit investigates and prosecutes banks and other
financial institutions, including their officers, managers, and employees, whose actions threaten
the integrity of the individual institution or the wider financial system.
