9 November 2020
According to a government report released on Friday, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the state fund, still had an estimated $7.8billion in outstanding debt as at September.
The US has said about US$4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB that implicated high-level officials of the fund, former prime minister Najib, Goldman executives, and others. This refers to only the funds laundered through the United States. The actual amount stolen from 1MDB is far more than this amount as other jurisdiction were involved in the scam.
In 2018 the government said that it would have to pay about US$13 billion of 1MDB’s debt. Since April 2017, the government has provided $2.2 billion in loans and advances to help 1MDB meet its financial commitments and debt obligations, according to the 2021 fiscal outlook report, released ahead of the government’s budget announcement on Friday.
Malaysia has also recovered a total of $3.2 billion in assets linked to 1MDB’s financial trail as at the end of September, the report said. The amount includes about $624 million in cash and assets recovered and returned to Malaysia by the US authorities, as well as US$2.5 billion paid by Goldman Sachs to settle a Malaysian probe into the investment bank’s role in the 1MDB scandal. Goldman Sachs has also guaranteed to help Malaysia recover US$1.4 billion more in 1MDB-linked assets.
Goldman Sachs on Thursday agreed to pay nearly US$3 billion to the US authorities to settle a probe into its role in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal, and its Malaysia unit agreed to plead guilty to violating foreign bribery laws. The settlement resolves a probe by US authorities into the bank’s role in underwriting three bond offerings in 2012 and 2013 that raised US$6.5 billion for Malaysia’s government. The investment bank will demand repayment of US$174 million in salary and bonuses paid to current and former executives who were involved in the bond issue.
Business Times reported.
