KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 27 — Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has filed a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in a bid to compel the government to extradite former Goldman Sachs South-east Asia chairman, Tim Leissner.
Najib said the aim was to acquire documents that could provide evidence of his alleged false implication in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) global financial scandal.
He explained the MACC report was made against Leissner so that the latter may be asked in court to divulge the identities of Malaysians that the former banker had allegedly bribed or documents revealing their names, and for appropriate legal action to then be taken against them.
“This is important to the principle of receiving a fair trial. This is very crucial evidence.
“So if we believe in a fair trial and the rule of law, these names must be exposed because it does not just involve the principle of a fair trial but the credibility of these witnesses,” he said to reporters in a brief press conference outside the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya, shortly after filing his report.
In February, Najib made a court filing in New York, seeking permission to obtain documents and testimony from investment bank Goldman Sachs to help in his defence against criminal charges in Malaysia over the 1MDB financial scandal.
Since the filing was rejected by the US Department of Justice, Najib explained today that he has no other choice but to seek the help of the attorney general to either extradite Leissner or acquire the aforementioned documents.
In 2018, the US Justice Department filed criminal charges against two former Goldman Sachs bankers, Leissner and Roger Ng.
Leissner pleaded guilty to the charges in 2019, while Ng’s case is still pending in a New York court.
