A former executive of Malaysia’s national upstream company Petronas Carigali has been charged with more counts of corruption and money laundering.
Mohd Amal M Razalan pleaded not guilty at the Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur last Wednesday to a further 41 counts of graft and five more charges of money laundering totalling more than 9.5 million ringgit ($2.2 million) related to maintenance work contracts.
The verdict came as a surprise to some who were skeptical of the government’s charges against Ng, former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs subsidiaries in Southeast Asia, for money laundering and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Jury trials under the FCPA are a rarity, as many FCPA defendants historically have been corporate entities that negotiated Deferred Prosecution Agreements with the government, and thus avoid the public scrutiny that is informed by trial.1 Ng’s case, which started under the last administration, is illustrative of the current trend in FCPA enforcement strategies to target not only corporate entities but also the individuals responsible for corrupt payments.2 Ng faces up to 20 years in prison for each of his three counts of conviction, although the district court has broad discretion in imposing his ultimate sentence.
