In overcoming their claims, the defendant faces an "uphill battle," in the words of one legal expert.

Roger Ng, Goldman's former head of investment banking in Malaysia, is charged with conspiring to launder money and to violate an anti-bribery law.

He has pleaded not guilty and Ng's lawyer has called him a "fall guy" for one of the biggest financial scandals in Wall Street history.

"Ng has an uphill battle because I think they are going to show that he was at a high level of management, that he had the connection with Low," Cheryl Bader, an associate clinical professor at Fordham University School of Law.

The trial in Brooklyn federal court could last up to six weeks.

Prosecutors are likely to argue that Ng helped two co-conspirators - his former boss, Timothy Leissner, and Malaysian intermediary Jho Low - launder funds embezzled from 1MDB and used some of the stolen money to bribe officials in the Southeast Asian country to win business for Goldman.