SINGAPORE: The question of who owns certain shares in fitness drink maker Celsius that Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner was ordered to forfeit in connection to his 1MDB guilty plea is now up in the air, as Leissner’s former wife, US model, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Kimora Lee, claims the shares are hers.
In March, Leissner was ordered to surrender over 3.3 million Celsius shares. Ms Lee, however, claims that 892,732 shares in Celsius Holdings Inc belong to her, having been bought from her earnings as a model and from her global lifestyle brand, Baby Phat.
She asked a Brooklyn, New York, federal judge on Friday (May 5) to hold a hearing to establish her ownership of those shares worth around US$93 million (S$123 million).
As reported by Bloomberg, the filing reads, “Lee has established that she is a bona fide purchaser for value of the Celsius shares, Leissner did not contribute any funds to the purchase of the Celsius shares and did not own the Celsius shares.
The fact that the Celsius shares were used as collateral for Leissner’s bond does not mean that there is a connection between Leissner’s offences and those shares which were seized.”
Lee and Leissner were married in 2014 and welcomed a son the following year. However, Leissner was still married to a woman named Judy Chan when he married Lee, having given the US model falsified documents showing he was already divorced from Ms Chan.
By February 2022, they were said to be estranged from each other, although when the couple separated, is unknown. He has testified in court to have been a bigamist.
Leissner entered a guilty plea in 2018 to having stolen $200 million from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and broken the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) through bribes he paid to get business for Goldman Sachs.
He was fined a record US$43 million (S$57 million) for his offences and may be jailed for 25 years.
Roger Ng, a fellow Gold Sachs banker Leissner testified against, is also suing Leissner for allegedly stealing US$1.25 million (S$1.66 million) that was Ng’s initial investment in Celsius and is now worth a much bigger sum. /TISG
https://theindependent.sg/tim-leissner-the-wine-women-and-song-man-behind-1mdb-drama/