Ex-Goldman Banker Who Pleaded Guilty in 1MDB Fraud Seeks Pardon
(Bloomberg) — The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive who admitted to taking part in one of the largest financial frauds in history. banker Tim Leissner is asking for a presidential pardon before turning himself in to federal prison.
Leissner applied for a pardon with the U.S. Department of Justice last year, according to a notice on the Justice Department’s website. The document was filed between September 3 and November 18, according to archived copies posted on Hukukoyer.com.
Leissner, Goldman’s former Southeast Asia head, admitted to a scheme to embezzle $4.5 billion from the 1MDB fund in Malaysia in 2018. Leissner cooperated with prosecutors and became the US government’s star witness against a former Goldman colleague at a 2022 trial in Brooklyn, New York.
The White House has criticized Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang, who was convicted in the collapse of his $36 billion family office, and Theranos Inc., who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for defrauding investors in a blood-testing venture. is reviewing thousands of pardon requests, including a pardon offer from founder Elizabeth Holmes.
Last week, President Donald Trump granted clemency to more than 20 people, including those convicted of white-collar crimes. Trump says he is using his unchecked pardon powers to correct abuses in the criminal justice system against politically motivated individuals. But critics say he abuses the process and undermines the work of prosecutors.
Leissner and prosecutors argued at his sentencing in May that he should be spared prison because his cooperation resulted in the conviction of a former colleague and a multibillion-dollar global fine against Goldman. But a federal judge sentenced him to two years in prison, calling his behavior “brazen and audacious.”
It is scheduled to be delivered to a facility in Southern California early next month. The federal judge had ordered Leissner to begin serving his sentence on November 17 but allowed him to remain free until January 12. Earlier this month, his attorney, Henry Mazurek, said prison officials needed time to find a facility in California close to his family and asked Leissner to surrender on Feb. 6.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn declined to comment. Mazurek did not immediately respond to a message.
The 1MDB scam brought down the Malaysian government and sparked investigations in six countries. At the trial of former Goldman colleague Roger Ng, Leissner testified that he worked with Ng and Malaysian financier Jho Low, the alleged architect of the 1MDB fraud.
During his sentencing, Leissner pleaded for forgiveness from prison.
“I know how terrible my crime was,” he said. “In the process of telling the government and the world about 1MDB, I was forced to publicly confront the fact that I had helped steal billions of dollars, not just from individuals, but from an entire nation.”
–With help from Todd Gillespie, Max Abelson and Aaron Gordon.
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