Ex-Goldman Sachs exec says his spurned lover blackmailed him into giving her a $10 million London home by threatening to expose his involvement in multi-billion-dollar Malaysia embezzlement case

• Tom Leissner, 52, a former Goldman Sachs executive, testified that he had an affair with former client Rohana Rozhan 
• Rozhan, CEO of MESAT Broadcast and former CEO of Astro Malaysia Holdings, allegedly blackmailed Leissner to buy her a $10 million home in London
• Leissner said she threatened to expose his involvement in the Malaysia 1MDB corruption scandal if he did not buy her the home using the foreign fund
• He added that their relationship was an open secret known by his boss
• It comes as Leissner testified against Roger Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia who allegedly led the corruption case
• Leissner pleaded guilty to his involvement in the $4.5 billion scheme and agreed to help prosecutors build their case against Ng, who has pleaded not guilty 

An ex-Goldman Sachs executive testifying in an embezzlement trial against another banker revealed that a Malaysian media CEO he had an affair with blackmailed him into buying her a $10 million home in London.

Tom Leissner, 52, who pleaded guilty to taking part in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal in 2018, told prosecutors at Roger Ng’s trial on Tuesday that he had a decade-long affair with Rohana Rozhan, MEASAT Broadcast executive and former CEO of Astro Malaysia Holdings.

Leissner testified that Rozhan threatened to reveal his involvement in Ng’s alleged $4.5 billion scheme with the Malaysian government to embezzle money from the 1MDB account in 2013 if he did not siphon $10 million from the fund to buy her a London home, Bloomberg reported.  

‘Ms. Rozhan was very upset that I was ending our relationship to be with my future wife, with Kimora,’ Leissner told prosecutors, referring to his estranged wife, model and reality TV star Kimora Lee Simmons, 46.  

‘If I didn’t buy her a house, she would tell the authorities about my involvement in the 1MDB scandal. She was threatening to expose me. At the time, 2013, I was very fearful of that.’ 

Former Goldman Sachs executive Tim Leissner (center) testified that he was in a decade-long affair with Rohana Rozhan, MEASAT Broadcast executive and former CEO of Astro Malaysia Holdings. He said the media CEO threatened to expose his involvement in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal if he did not buy her a $10 million house in London

Rohana Rozhan (above) was in a relationship with Leissner from 2003 to 2013, according to Leissner’s testimony. He said their relationship was an open secret 

Leissner claimed Rozhan was upset that he was breaking up with her to marry his now estranged wife, Kimora Lee Simmons (right), a reality TV star and model

Agnifilo told jurors that Leissner (pictured with Kimora) ‘uses people’ and has had an ‘illicit’ relationship with Jasmine Loo

Leissner was called to testify last week against Ng, Goldman’s former head of investment banking in Malaysia, who is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law. 

Leissner agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation and testify against his former associate for a reduced sentence, forfeiting $43million. 

Prosecutors said that Ng, 49, received $35 million in kickbacks for helping embezzle $4.5 billion in funds from 1MDB in a ‘brazen’ scam.

The pair allegedly worked with Malaysian financier Jho Low to divert the money to fund their lavish lifestyle.

NG has pleaded not guilty to the charges. 

Leissner added that he informed his then-boss Richard Gnodde, head of Goldman Sachs’ Asia business, about his relationship with Rozhan, Bloomberg reported.

Gnodde had allegedly told Leissner to ‘be careful about relationships with clients,’ as Astro was one of the businesses Goldman Sachs was working with in Malaysia. 

Leissner said their relationship, which spanned from 2003 to 2013, was an open secret. 

‘Pretty much everybody in our Southeast Asia territory knew it,’ he testified. 

Goldman Sachs declined to comment on Leissner’s testimony. Rozhan, who resigned from Astro in 2019, could not be immediately reached for comment.   

Tuesday’s testimony was the latest reveal into Leissner’s person life after Ng’s defense attorney claimed the ex banker was a ‘double bigamist’ who ‘uses women.’ 

Leissner, was allegedly ‘married to two different women at the same time, twice,’ attorney Marc Agnifilo claimed last week.

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. Leissner 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.

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

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.’

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. 

The pair allegedly worked with Malaysian financier Jho Low (pictured) to divert the money to fund their lavish lifestyle

‘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. 

The vague details of Tim Leissner’s marriage history 

Tim Leissner was accused of bigamy during Roger Ng’s money laundering trial. The accusation has prompted questions about the banker’s vaguely detailed personal life.

The former Goldman Sachs employee is currently married to model Kimora Lee Simmons. 

The pair had a secret wedding. The exact date and location of that ceremony remains unknown, as a marital records search did not yield any results.

The couple was, however, 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. 

Leissner and Kimora Lee Simmons share a son, Wolfe, who was born 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 Magazine reported at the time that news of the interaction ‘seemed to spread rapidly to Kimora.’

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.

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

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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