Goldman Sachs to face Swedish pension fund in 1MDB class action

Sjunde AP-Fonden was named on Thursday as lead plantiff in the suit, which accuses the bank of misleading investors about its work with the Malaysian state fund.

MANHATTAN: A Swedish pension fund will control a class action against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. over the 1MDB scandal, a federal judge in New York ruled.

Sjunde AP-Fonden was named on Thursday as lead plantiff in the suit, which accuses the bank of misleading investors about its work with the Malaysian state fund.

The law firm Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP was named as lead counsel.

U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick’s ruling means that Sjunde AP-Fonden’s legal team will map strategy, oversee legal motions, manage settlement talks and divvy up the work among collaborating firms.

They stand to collect the most in fees in the event of a settlement or a verdict favoUrable to them.

Shareholders sued Goldman Sachs in December, accusing it of misleading them about the firm’s work with 1MDB, for which the bank arranged US$6.5bil in bond sales. The investors seek unspecified damages. The firm has denied culpability in

the scandal and laid the blame on Tim Leissner, a former partner who has pleaded guilty.

The case is Plaut v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., 18-cv-12084, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan). - Bloomberg