Guan Eng: Malaysia to proceed with criminal charges against Goldman Sachs

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia will proceed to file criminal charges against the Goldman Sachs Group over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issue sometime next year, says Lim Guan Eng (pic).

The Finance Minister said this was despite news reports that Goldman Sachs intended to reach an out-of-court settlement with the United States' Department of Justice (DOJ).

"Our Government does not have information about this matter (Goldman Sachs' settlement with DOJ) but we will still pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs.

"I was informed by the Attorney General that the case will be heard in court in the middle of next year.

"We still want to claim payment of US$7.5bil (RM31.19bil), for the losses caused by Goldman Sachs alone in the 1MDB scandal," said Lim at a press conference here after announcing the Finance Ministry's inaugural Putrajaya LIFT (Literacy in Financial Technology) Festival 2019 on Thursday (Dec 12).

Bloomberg reported that Goldman Sachs could end up paying less than US$2bil (RM8.3bil) to resolve an investigation over its role in raising money for 1MDB.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently told Reuters in an interview that Malaysia would prefer to avoid going to court, but only if a reasonable offer could be agreed upon.

He said the investment bank's offer of "one point something billion dollars" as compensation was too small.