By Patricia Hurtado and Chris Dolmetsch
(Bloomberg) — It all started with a fake Gmail account. From there, a network of lies that culminated in a fake car accident.
Former Goldman Sachs star banker Tim Leissner opened up on Tuesday about how he used an email account with his ex-wife’s name on it for all sorts of shenanigans, starting with lying to his then-girlfriend, Kimora Lee Simmons.
Posing as his then-wife, Judy Chan, Leissner initially used the account to try to convince Simmons that the two were no longer married. But he continued to impersonate Chan for years to converse with Simmons about family vacations and other topics.
Leissner is the government’s key witness against former Goldman banker Roger Ng, the firm’s only banker to stand trial in the 1MDB scandal. Leissner, who pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the United States, testified that Ng conspired with him to help Malaysian financier Jho Low siphon off billions of dollars from the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.
Leissner was questioned on Tuesday about the fake email account by Ng’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, who is trying to undermine the banker’s credibility by showing the jury that he is a “rare crafty liar”, as the
While impersonating Chan, Leissner declined repeated invitations from Simmons for Chan and her children to vacation with the former model and her family in Paris, ski vacations in Austria, and a private island in the Caribbean. In an email created by Leissner, Chan told Simmons that she would not be able to visit him because she and her children with Leissner were injured in a car accident.
“It was a whole life that you completely falsified because you made it all up?” asked an incredulous Agnifilo.
“The correspondence yes,” said Leissner. “But a lifetime may be too far.”
Agnifilo showed Leissner an email he had sent to Simmons in which Chan claimed she had the banker audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
“I don’t remember, but I see it here,” Leissner said.
Leissner also admitted on Tuesday that he used the fake email address to communicate with Low after the financier contacted Chan in 2016 because he was looking to sell artwork, including a painting by Vincent van Gogh. . Chan’s family owns the best vineyard in China, as well as other businesses, he said.
“Jho was trying to monetize the painting and several others and he wanted to see if Judy or her family could be of help,” Leissner said.
Agnifilo asked why he was pretending to be Chan while talking to Low.
“I wanted to protect Judy from him,” Leissner said. “I wanted to pacify him or be friends. I wanted to make an effort or look like I was trying to help her.
Leissner had previously admitted he had been married twice to two women at the same time, claiming he forged a divorce document to marry Chan and later photo-shopped a divorce decree to marry Simmons.
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