KUALA LUMPUR – A royal commission of inquiry (RCI) should be set up to investigate how Malaysia was short-changed in the “shocking” settlement agreement with investment bank Goldman Sachs over its role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal, said a DAP lawmaker.
Chong Zhemin (Kampar-PH) also accused former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Pagoh-PN) of being the one responsible for the lopsided settlement.
“As revealed by Bagan (former finance minister Lim Guan Eng) yesterday, the government started with a US$7.5-billion (RM35.55-billion) settlement when it entered negotiations with Goldman Sachs.
“Five months after the Pakatan Harapan government collapsed, Pagoh in August 2020 signed a settlement agreement with Goldman Sachs for US$3.9 billion.
“Not only that, only US$2.5 billion (was set to be paid) and another US$1.4 billion in the agreement had a clause which gave leeway for Goldman Sachs to further reduce the amount if Malaysia recovers assets.
“This is shocking, it is scandalous. How can we allow Goldman Sachs to reduce the settlement from US$3.9 billion to US$2.5 billion?” Chong asked in his debate at the Dewan Rakyat today.
He claimed that the Muhyiddin government at the time did not study the agreement and that a fixed amount of settlement should have been included.
“I hope all (in the Dewan Rakyat) can accept that we establish an RCI. We must fully investigate how we had signed such a biased agreement. We allowed a reduction of billions of dollars.
“US$4.5 billion should be the base and we should not have gone lower than that. But now, we only have US$2.5 billion. This is unacceptable.”
Chong said the outcome of the agreement could have been caused by corruption, or that the government at the time was careless.
He added that the matter was serious and that Goldman Sachs had been proven to have been involved in corruption before.
In 2020, Goldman Sachs said the agreement in principle would involve the payment to the Malaysian government of US$2.5 billion.
The agreement also included a guarantee that the Malaysian government would receive US$1.4 billion from the recovery of assets related to 1MDB.
Meanwhile, Chong proposed for a cash reward of RM10 million to find fugitive Low Taek Jho, known as Jho Low.
He said Jho Low must be arrested so that Malaysians would get closure for the 1MDB case.
“As long as Jho Low does not reappear, Malaysians will not have closure, and we will not know what really happened.
“Even Osama bin Laden can be found after many years… we too can find Jho Low,” he said, adding that the amount of the cash reward proposed was small compared to the amount of money lost because of the fugitive. – March 20, 2024