Govt says Goldman Sachs settlement agreement confidential, won't reveal

PARLIAMENT | Putrajaya has declined to disclose the full terms of the 1MDB-Goldman Sachs settlement citing a confidentiality clause arrived at in the agreement inked between Malaysia and the US-based investment bank.

Similarly, the government also declined to reveal details on the return of US$1.4 billion (RM5.97 billion) in stolen 1MDB assets back to Malaysia by the banking firm.

This according to de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan who turned down a request in the Dewan Rakyat today from Wong Chen (Pakatan Harapan-Subang) who asked for access to the relevant information.

"Based on the settlement agreement between the government of Malaysia, 1MDB and Minister of Finance (Incorporated) with Goldman Sachs, there was a clause requiring all terms and conditions stated in the agreement to be bound by a confidentiality clause and this was agreed upon by the parties of the agreement.

"The confidentiality clause also applied to the (return of) US$1.4 billion in stolen assets as pledged by Goldman Sachs," he said.

"As such, based on the confidentiality clause, the government is not able to give access to the details of the agreement as requested to prevent any legal action being taken (against Malaysia) due to a breach of the agreement," he said.

It was reported in July that Goldman Sachs agreed to return US$4.5 billion (RM19 billion) with the first chunk of US$2.5 billion to be paid in two months.

The balance of US$1.4 billion (RM5.97 billion) would be paid after the assets related to the misappropriated proceeds from the transactions had been returned to the government.

Goldman Sachs was engaged by 1MDB to raise US$6.5 billion (RM27.72 billion) in bonds between 2009 and 2014.

In August last year, Malaysian prosecutors filed 17 criminal charges against Goldman Sachs related to the bond issue and various 1MDb dealings.

Following this, the bank offered to settle.