Tim Leissner

Tim Leissner (born October 31, 1971) is a German-born investment banker and convicted felon. As managing director at Goldman Sachs and chairman of the bank's Southeast Asia division^[1] Leissner helped orchestrate the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal, one of the biggest financial scandals in history, in which billions of dollars were stolen. He was arrested in June 2018 in Washington, D.C., forced to pay a $43 million fine. As of 2020, he faced up to 25 years in prison, but due to his cooperation has avoided spending any time in jail. On 29 May 2025 Leissner was sentenced to two years in Federal prison.^[2]

Tim Leissner
Born	(1971-10-31) October 31, 1971 (age 53)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Investment banker
Known for	1MDB Fraud
Title	Chairman of Southeast Asia and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs
Spouse(s)	Judy Chan ​ ​ (m. 2000, divorced)​ Kimora Lee Simmons ​ ​ (m. 2014; sep. 2022)​
Children	2

Early life and education

Tim Leissner was born in Germany as the son of a senior^[3] Volkswagen executive, and studied at the University of Siegen. In 1992, he earned an MBA from the University of Hartford in Connecticut.^[4]

Career

See also: 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal

After working at JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers,^[5] Leissner worked from 1998 to 2016 at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. He became partner in 2006 and in 2014 chairman of the bank's Southeast Asia division.^[4] He retired in January 2016 after an internal review found he sent a fake letter to Banque Havilland on behalf of Jho Low.^{[citation needed]}

1MDB

Leissner was arrested in June 2018 in Washington, D.C. In 2018 he pled guilty to charges he personally stole $200 million from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and that he broke the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by paying bribes to corrupt Malaysian and Emirati offices to get Goldman Sachs business.^[6][7]

Leissner was banned for life by the Securities and Exchange Commission and forced to pay a $43 million fine. As of 2020 he faced up to 25 years in prison.^[8][9] but due to his cooperation has avoided spending any time in jail.^[10]

In 2020 Goldman paid a record fine (over $5 billion) to the Malaysian and U.S. authorities over the scandal.^[11][12] In 2022, Bloomberg called Leissner "Goldman's most notorious banker."^[13]

He testified against his former deputy Roger Ng in a 2022 trial.^[14] As of 2022, Leissner was free on bail of $20 million.^[4] On 29 May 2025 Leissner was sentenced to two years in Federal prison by Chief District Judge Margo Brodie in the Eastern District of New York.^[15]

Personal life

Leissner has been married 3 times. He was twice married to two women at the same time.^[16]

He married his second wife, Judy Chan, in Hong Kong in about 2000.^[17]

In 2014, Leissner married Kimora Lee Simmons. At the time Leissner married Simmons, he was still married to his ex-wife, Judy Chan. Leissner gave Simmons photoshopped documents showing that he was divorced from Chan, and created an email address in Chan's name to convince Simmons that the couple had divorced. He continued the correspondence for over a year and continued using the email account for several years.^[18] Leissner and Simmons had a son, born in 2015.^[19][20][21] In 2020, Simmons adopted a 10-year old son.^[22] In February 2022, it was revealed that Leissner and Simmons were estranged, though it is not clear when the couple split.^[23]

Leissner has a daughter.^[24]