MALAYSIA is asking Goldman Sachs Group Inc to fully refund the US$600 million (RM2.5 billion) in fees the bank was paid for raising money for 1MDB via bond deals, Bloomberg reports today.

The report quoting Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in an interview with BFM said Malaysia was counting on Goldman Sachs’ “indirect” admission of culpability and US laws against kleptocracy to win its case for a fees refund.  

“I would be happy if we can get around 30% net after (deducting) all the expenses incurred,” Lim said. 

1MDB is billions of dollars in debt while the billions it raised with the help of Goldman Sachs are said to have been stolen to fund the lifestyle, businesses and acquisitions of “Malaysian Official 1” and his family and cronies.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has set the goal of recouping US$4.5 billion.

Goldman Sachs underwrote US$6.5 billion of the state-backed investment fund’s debts, the proceeds of which were allegedly misappropriated.

The bank has maintained that it had believed that the money were for development projects and that its Southeast Asia head at the time, Tim Leissner had withheld from the bank information on his dealings with 1MDB.

Malaysia would have to back its case for a fees refund by tracing the money trail, including the assets allegedly acquired with the fraudulent gains. This entails tracking down Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, the alleged mastermind in the conspiracy to cheat 1MDB out of billions of dollars.

Lim said the authorities in China, where Low was believed to have fled, had been cooperative.

“It is a matter of trying to determine where he is first before we can ask other countries to help us to detain him and extradite him back to Malaysia if there’s an extradition agreement,” Lim said. “But so far, as I said, we are still relying on Interpol to locate this rather slippery character.” – November 12, 2018.