(Bloomberg) – Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Roger Ng recommended Malaysian financier Jho Low as a private client in late 2009 but advised caution, a former compliance officer told a jury.

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Patrick Kidney, a prosecution witness in Ng’s corruption trial, said Ng advised Goldman’s compliance department not to accept Low’s claims about the size and source of his wealth “at face value. “.

A compliance panel spent six months trying to review Low and ultimately rejected him as a client in June 2010 after internal “red flag” reports emerged.

Prosecutors may have called Kidney to show that Ng continued to do business with Low for years after Goldman rejected him, despite concerns he raised. Ng told Kidney’s team that he only met Low once in late 2009, but it’s unclear if that’s true. The government produced emails showing Ng meeting Low in New York on October 31, 2009, and again the next day.

Ng, 49, is accused of conspiring with his former boss Tim Leissner to help Low siphon off billions of dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund — 1MDB. Prosecutors say Low, the mastermind of the scheme, bribed officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi and paid bribes to bankers. He was charged with Ng and remains a fugitive.

Ng’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, pointed out that no other Goldman banker who knew Low had raised concerns about him.

“There are no other sources giving negative feedback?” he asked Kidney.

“That’s right,” Kidney said.

When asked by Agnifilo, Kidney also said no one on his team informed Ng of his decision to reject Low.

During interrogation of prosecutor Dylan Stern, Kidney said Goldman compliance officers met with Low on several occasions between January and June 2010. Low could not explain the source of his wealth and submitted letters from recommendation that could not be verified and “appeared to be written”. by the same person,” Kidney said.

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Kidney described for jurors one of the “red flag” reports in which Ng provided “negative feedback” about the financier.

“He did not find the individual’s claims credible,” Kidney read in a March 2010 draft summary on Low that cited Ng. He said Ng told Goldman that “he hadn’t heard of the individual other than meeting him once” when he was also introduced to then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. .

Kidney’s team uncovered multiple issues with Low as a private client, including his dealings with “politically exposed persons” or people who posed a corruption threat overseas, he said. Whenever the compliance team asked Low for information explaining the source of his wealth, the Malaysian financier provided data that made them “run in circles”, he said.

“Every time we tried to undo it, we hit a dead end,” he said.

In June 2010, Kidney said his team had decided to reject Low, even though he said his colleagues complained that Rothschild & Co had accepted Low’s father as a private client. Kidney said the final straw came after bankers received a news report about Low’s allegedly corrupt activities.

“There were so many unresolved issues, so many red flags, so many alleged corruption issues,” he said. “There was no way I could ever say that this person was on board” at the bank.

Nonetheless, Kidney said Leissner offered Low again as a Goldman private client in 2011. Kidney was asked about his reaction.

“Surprised? Yeah,” he said. “I didn’t expect that. As far as I’m concerned, it was an open and closed affair. customer.

When Leissner testified last month, he claimed it was Ng who proposed Low a second time in 2011, but he “supported” her.

The trial resumes Monday.

The case is US v. Low Taek Jho, 18-cr-538, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

(Updates with defense argument in sixth paragraph.)

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