Utusan Malaysia reported that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim also agrees with the task force’s opinion that the government should be receiving much more in compensation than has been agreed.
“Johari is looking into it. Based on preliminary information, he believes the Goldman Sachs settlement should be reviewed,” said Anwar, referring to former second finance minister Johari Ghani who was appointed in March to chair a task force to resolve 1MDB issues.
“I agree with his opinion because from the start I thought the deal was rushed through. It has raised a lot of questions about the previous administration.
“We should have received much more. For instance, the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) wanted to resolve the matter by payment of a smaller sum, but when we held firm, we received US$1.8 billion – which is a substantial amount,” Anwar had told reporters.
He said Putrajaya is standing firm to ensure that the 1MDB issue is resolved quickly.
“People tend look at issues such as transparency and being firm lightly, but they can save public money,” he was quoted as saying.
In 2020, the finance ministry announced that Goldman Sachs had agreed to pay US$3.9 billion to settle charges brought against them and the outstanding claims relating to three bond transactions arranged by the firm for 1MDB.
Malaysia has received a total sum of US$4.5 billion, which includes funds returned by the US department of justice.
The settlement consists of a payment of US$2.5 billion and a guarantee to return at least US$1.4 billion in the form of assets traced to money swindled from three bond transactions.
The sum was a significant increase when compared to the first Goldman Sachs offer which was for US$1.75 billion.
However, on Feb 27, Johari had told the Dewan Rakyat that Malaysia had been shortchanged by Goldman Sachs in the 1MDB settlement.
He said it was odd that the then Perikatan Nasional administration had settled for a mere US$2.5 billion when Malaysia’s exposure was US$6.5 billion.
Johari said it was “clear-cut” that Goldman Sachs had “cheated” the government, seeing that members of the financial firm’s senior management were involved, but got away scot-free.