Malaysian authorities have rejected an offer of $ 2 billion offer from Goldman Sachs over the role that it played in the 1MDB scandal. The country’s authorities demand is a staggering $ 7.5 billion.
Authorities have charged more than 17 present and former directors of the bank who have allegedly played a part in the billion-dollar scandal according to reports. The bank is rumoured to have sold about $ 6.5 billion of sovereign wealth fund misleading its investors while the actual aim was to raise this money for 1MDB.
The country’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told this to the Financial Times last Friday. According to him, the company should pay the Malaysian authorities around $ 7.5 billion. Goldman has not yet commented anything on the matter. Goldman had held a meeting last month with all the persons at the helm of the company looking to find a resolution over investigating 1MDB’s financials on where this money was spent.
According to US authorities, around $ 4.5 billion was siphoned off from the accounts of 1MDB which was a company founded by then Prime Minister Najib Razak. The entire money has been spent on buying luxurious superyachts and costly real estate properties.
The main person and bank financer who seems to have played a major role in this scandal are Jho Low. Low has been constantly denying any wrongdoing and does want to stand trial in a court of justice in Malaysia as long Mahathir is in power. Mahathir who became the country’s Prime Minister last year on the backdrop of this scandal. Low had agreed to forfeit $ 700 million in assets in a move to start the recovery of the money. Mahathir said that America should hand over whatever it had gathered from Low to the Malaysian authorities.