KUALA LUMPUR: Kampar member of parliament Chong Zhemin has urged the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the agreement signed between the Malaysian government and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (Goldman Sachs) in 2020.
The agreement was on the recovery of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) assets.
"The previous Pakatan Harapan government had claimed a US$7.5 billion of settlement amount. However, the PH government (under the leadership of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin) had inked an agreement with Goldman Sachs for US$3.9 billion.
"The amount is US$5.1 billion less than we first started," he said.
"US$2.5 billion was fixed. However, there was a clause of US$1.4 billion that gave leeway to Goldman Sachs to reduce the settlement amount, if we managed to recover assets from other sources.
"This is surprising and scandalous. Why are we allowing them to do so?
"I hope everyone can agree to setting up an RCI to fully investigate into how a one-sided agreement was signed," he said when debating the Supplementary Supply Bill.
He added Muhyiddin must be held accountable for that as he was the then-prime minister when the agreement was inked.
On March 1, 1MDB Asset Recovery Taskforce chairman Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the agreement signed between the Malaysian government and Goldman Sachs, regarding the recovery of 1MDB assets in 2020, was vague and not detailed.
He said that the matter was a factor in Goldman Sachs taking advantage of not wanting to fulfil its asset recovery guarantee, amounting to US$1.4 billion to the Malaysian government.
The settlement agreement signed in August 2020 between the government of Malaysia and Goldman Sachs required the latter to pay US$2.5 billion cash payment and provide the government of Malaysia with a US$1.4 billion asset recovery guarantee.
Goldman Sachs contends that its obligations under the asset recovery guarantee have been discharged through the fines imposed on AmBank Group (US$640 million) and about US$430 million from the US Department of Justice.