Ex-Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner is a ‘double bigamist,’ a defense lawyer has claimed in the sensational Wall Street trial into his colleague’s alleged multibillion-dollar embezzlement scheme.
Leissner, the estranged husband of fashion model and reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, was allegedly ‘married to two different women at the same time, twice,’ Roger Ng’s defense attorney Marc Agnifilo has claimed.
The German-born Leissner has been reportedly married three times, though the dates, and marriage and divorce records are not available.
He was allegedly married to an unidentified first wife before meeting and later marrying Judy Chan, a former analyst at Goldman and the daughter of a coal-mining business owner in China. He has also tied the knot with Simmons.
He met Simmons, who was previously married to hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, in business class on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur.
The couple reportedly exchanged vows in 2013 – around the time his relationship with Chan fell apart – and had a son, Wolfe, who was born in 2015.
Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.
Wednesday, prosecutors called German-born Leissner, their star witness who was Ng’s former boss at the bank’s Southeast Asia operation, to testify at the Brooklyn trial.
Prosecutors said in opening statements at his trial on Monday that Ng, 49, received $35 million in kickbacks for helping embezzle $4.5 billion in funds from 1MDB in a ‘brazen’ scam.
Ex-Goldman Sachs partner Tim Leissner, pictured with his estranged wife Kimora Lee Simons, is a ‘double bigamist’, a defense lawyer has claimed
Leissner has been married twice; first to Judy Chan (pictured) a former analyst at Goldman and the daughter of a coal-mining business owner in China
Roger Ng (left, pictured alongside his lawyer Marc Agnifilo), Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law to fund his lavish lifestyle
Leissner, 52, in 2018 pleaded guilty to money laundering and bribery charges and agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation and testify against Ng for a reduced sentence, forfeiting $43million.
The pair allegedly worked with Malaysian financier Jho Low to divert the money to fund their lavish lifestyle.
Agnifilo told jurors that Leissman ‘uses people’ and has had an ‘illicit’ relationship with Jasmine Loo, the general counsel at 1MDB, The New York Post reported.
She has since fled Malaysia and is wanted by authorities.
The defense attorney said Leissner and Loo developed a ‘dark trust because of their illicit, intimate romantic relationship’.
Agnifilo said: ‘Leissner uses women, he uses false intimacy, and now he’s trying to use my client to get him to do his jail time.’
The pair allegedly worked with Malaysian financier Jho Low (pictured) to divert the money to fund their lavish lifestyle
If convicted, Ng faces decades behind bars for the alleged embezzlement to fund his lavish lifestyle.
The ex-banker’s attorneys denied the allegations, arguing that US prosecutors scapegoated Ng for ‘corporate-wide’ failures at Goldman that enabled the colossal fraud.
‘Roger is 100% innocent,’ defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told the jury. ‘We’re about to actually have a trial of an innocent man.’
The defense argued Ng’s only role was introducing Low to ‘far more involved’ superiors at Goldman who escaped prosecution. The attorney also claimed his client warned company management not to trust Low.
Among the purchases made from the record heist were a vast superyacht called Equanimity, jewels, and even financing for the hit 2013 movie The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Agnifilo told jurors that Leissner (pictured with Kimora) ‘uses people’ and has had an ‘illicit’ relationship with Jasmine Loo
Agnifilo told jurors Leissner should not be trusted, claiming the witness secretly recorded co-conspirators in the scheme, but he never found anything incriminating about his client Ng.
Federal prosecutor Brent Wible alleges Ng secretly agreed with Leissner and Low to take hundreds of millions of dollars raised for three bond deals tied to 1MDB that had been intended for development projects in Malaysia.
Low, the accused mastermind behind the scheme, was indicted in the US alongside Ng in 2018.
He has not been arrested by US or Malaysian authorities and his US lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors say Goldman earned $600 million in fees from the deals, and that around $4.5billion of the funds raised was embezzled.
Goldman paid a nearly $3billion fine and arranged for its Malaysian subsidiary to plead guilty in US court.
Leissner said on the stand Wednesday that Ng was Goldman’s lead banker on 1MDB and had cultivated a relationship with Malaysian financier Jho Low starting in 2008, who was the key intermediary between the bank and 1MDB.
Bringing in 1MDB business to Goldman, which ultimately sold $6.5 billion in bonds for the fund and reaped $600 million in fees, ‘instantaneously made us heroes’ within the bank, Leissner said.
‘My greed and ambition took over,’ Leissner said, adding that the fallout from his actions had destroyed his life.
He also said bankers at Goldman were expected to be hired on every one of their clients’ deals, and that missing one was considered ‘unacceptable.’
Agnifilo has countered that Leissner, who has not yet been sentenced, has lied to prosecutors about Ng’s involvement in a bid to lighten his punishment.
He spent much of his opening statement attacking Leissner’s credibility, portraying him as a socialite with expensive taste.
Before marrying Kimora Lee Simmons, Leissner was married to Judy Chan, who currently runs Grace Vineyard, China’s first family-owned winery.
Chan and Leissner met at Goldman when she was working as a junior analyst. It is unclear when exactly they got married, but Bloomberg Quint reported that the feast ‘included suckling pigs with electric lights flashing in their eye sockets.’
Reports suggest Chan and Leissner divorced in 2013 although divorce records were not readily accessible.
Chan was using her married name in Grace Vineyard promotional materials in 2012. She appears to have begun using her maiden name in 2013.
Authors Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, in their novel Billion Dollar Whale, report that Leissner married Chan after divorcing his first wife.
Information regarding his alleged first wife’s identity was not disclosed in the book and records of a first marriage cannot be found.
Leissner and Simmons met in business class on a flight from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur. Their initial encounter is said to have begun with an argument and ended in a marriage proposal.
They wed in 2013, however, the exact date and location of the ceremony remains unknown as a marital records search did not yield any results.
The couple was pictured in Saint Barthélemy in December 2013 sporting rings on their left hands. Page Six alleged they may have had a Caribbean wedding during that time.
She gave birth to his son, Wolfe, in 2015. They also adopted Gary, then 10, in January 2020.
The couple has since become estranged, although it is unclear when they split.
There was speculation they were separating in January 2020 after Leissner was ‘seen canoodling with a mystery woman’. Us Weekly reported at the time that news of the interaction ‘seemed to spread rapidly to Kimora’. She was also said to be ‘been spending a lot of time away from Los Angeles’ during that time.
Leissner and Simmons were living in an $11million Los Angeles mansion but sold the home last year. Leissner still resides in the City of Angels.
Before marrying Simmons, Leissner was married to Judy Chan, who currently runs Grace Vineyard, China’s first family-owned winery.
Chan and Leissner met at Goldman when she was working as a junior analyst. It is unclear when exactly they got married, however Bloomberg Quint reported the feast ‘included suckling pigs with electric lights flashing in their eye sockets.’
Reports suggest Chan and Leissner divorced in 2013 although divorce records were not readily accessible.
Chan was using her married name in Grace Vineyard promotional materials in 2012. She appears to have begun using her maiden name in 2013.
Authors Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, in their novel Billion Dollar Whale, report that Leissner married Chan after divorcing his first wife. Information regarding his alleged first wife’s was not disclosed.
Kimora, a former model, was married for ten years to Russell Simmons – the founder of hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings – before they divorced in 2008. They have two children.
Malaysian socialite Jho Low (right) – the other key player in the scheme – remains at large and is believed to have been granted asylum abroad. In 2012, he threw a lavish 31st birthday bash attended by DiCaprio (left), Kim Kardashian and other celebrities. Low and DiCaprio are pictured at The Wolf of Wall Street World Premiere in Paris in December 2013
Tim Leissner, former chairman of Southeast Asia for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., center, departs from federal court in the Brooklyn on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022
Malaysian socialite Low, who maintains his innocence, became well known in the New York City and Los Angeles club scenes.
In 2012, he threw a lavish 31st birthday bash attended by DiCaprio, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities – a fête described by The Wall Street Journal as the ‘wildest party [Las] Vegas ever saw.’
Pop star Britney Spears is said to have jumped out of a birthday cake to serenade Low.
He also dated Miranda Kerr, who was forced to surrender $8million in jewelry he gave her amid the 1MDB inquiry.
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