Sleazy Ex-Goldman Sachs Banker Posed as His Own Wife Online, Corruption Trial Reveals
A bigamist former Goldman Sachs banker posed as his ex-wife for years over email to try and convince his reality star girlfriend that their marriage had ended.
Tim Leissner – who pleaded guilty to taking part in Malaysia‘s 1MDB corruption scandal in 2018 – told Goldman Sachs colleague Roger Ng’s trial on Tuesday that he used an email account bearing the name of his then-wife, Judy Chan, to convince reality star Kimora Lee Simmons he was divorced, Bloomberg reported.
Leissner, posing as Chan, used the account to woo Simmons for years, whom he later married. Simmons – a model and reality star – was so convinced by the ploy that she even invited the emailer she believed to be wine heiress Chan on vacation with her.
The email correspondences showed he routinely declined Simmons’ invitations for Chan and her children to vacation with the former model and her family in Paris, Austria and on a private Caribbean island. In one message he even cited a car accident as reason they were unable to travel.
‘It was an entire life you completely falsified because you made the whole thing up?’ Ng’s attorney, Marc Agnifilo, asked Leissner.
‘The correspondence yes,’ he reportedly replied. ‘But an entire life may be too far.’ Leissner is a double-bigamist who faked divorce papers from his unnamed first wife to marry Chan, before deploying the same tactic to marry Simmons while still betrothed to both other women.
Despite his history of deceit, Leissner is the prosecution’s key witness in the trial against Ng. He alleges his former colleague conspired with him to help Malaysian financier Joh Low embezzle $4.5billion in funds from Malaysian government development fund 1MDB in a ‘brazen’ scam and divert the money to fund their lavish lifestyle.
The ex-banker also admitted in court last month that he faked divorce documents to marry Simmons, 46, in 2014 while he was still married to Chan, a former analyst at Goldman and the daughter of a coal-mining business owner in China. Chan’s family also owns the nation’s top winery and a slew of other businesses.
In an attempt to undermine his credibility as a witness, Agnifilo – who has branded the former banking executive as a ‘rare cunning liar’ – presented Leissner with an email he sent Simmons from the fake account.
In the message, Leissner, posing as Chan, told Simmons she had caused the banker to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
When asked about the email, Leissner told the court: ‘I don’t remember, but I see it here.’
The former executive also admitted to using that same account to communicate with Low in 2016 when the financier reached out about using Chan’s family connections to sell a collection of fine art, including a painting by Vincent van Gogh.
Leissner alleged he engaged in the conversation with Low in an attempt to protect his wife.
‘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.
‘I wanted to protect Judy from him. I wanted to pacify him or be friends. I wanted to make an effort or appear I was attempting to help him.’
The newest revelation about his personal life comes after Leissner admitted he had faked not one, but two divorces – and used false documents to marry Simmons.
‘I photoshopped the divorce document,’ Leissner told the courtroom in February.
He added that when he and Chan tied the knot in 2000, he was married to another woman, who has not been identified, and submitted fake records to the Hong Kong government to finalize their marriage.
Leissner claimed Simmons was not aware of his actions back then but that Chan was, saying the heiress and business woman was angered by it and refused to transfer $900,000 to his account so he could put a down payment on a new home for him and Simmons in Los Angeles.
‘Judy did not want to make any transfers related to my new family life in Los Angeles,’ Leissner testified, according to Bloomberg. ‘I think she did some research on the Internet and found out I was trying to buy this house.’
Leissner had 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. They also adopted Gary, then 10, in January 2020.
He and Lee Simmons are estranged, her lawyers have said.
The revelations came as Leissner was called to testify against Ng who is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.
Leissner in 2018 pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and violate an anti-bribery law, and 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 $35million in kickbacks for helping embezzle the $4.5billion in funds from 1MDB. NG has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is standing trial in Brooklyn federal court.
The charges stem from some $6.5 billion in bonds Goldman helped 1MDB sell in 2012 and 2013. Prosecutors say $4.5 billion of that was embezzled by officials, bankers and their associates, in one of the biggest scandals in Wall Street history.
Leissner said he and Ng, Goldman’s top banker for Malaysia, secretly liased with conspirators outside Goldman, and received kickbacks.
Ng’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, argues Leissner is falsely implicating Ng to lower his own sentence. Prosecutors say Leissner’s assertions are backed by other evidence.
Goldman in 2020 agreed to pay a $3 billion fine and have its Malaysia subsidiary plead guilty in U.S. court. The bank said at the time it did not adequately ‘scrutinize the representations of certain members of the deal team.’