A federal magistrate judge on Monday said the Justice Department is engaged in plea negotiations with a former managing director of Goldman Sachs who was extradited from Malaysia, a development that could help prosecutors build a case against the bank and Goldman employees in the scandal involving a Malaysian government fund.

News of the talks between the former banker, Roger Ng, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn was revealed by US Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo during Ng’s initial court hearing. He arrived Monday from Malaysia, where he had been held in jail since his arrest in November.