A Goldman Sachs sign at at NYSE.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Goldman Sachs has offered 1 billion ringgit ($241.73 million) to compensate Malaysia for its role in a multi-billion dollar financial scandal involving a Malaysian state fund — but the prime minister of the Southeast Asian country described that amount as “peanuts.”
The U.S. financial giant helped state firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) to raise $6.5 billion in 2012 and 2013, and collected higher-than-typical fees of $600 million for the deals. Around $4.5 billion was later found missing from the fund, of which millions of dollars allegedly ended up in the personal bank account of Najib Razak, Malaysia’s former prime minister.
“What Goldman Sachs has offered is not adequate,” Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told CNBC’s Tanvir Gill on Saturday in Bangkok, Thailand where he’s attending a summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Mahathir said Malaysia’s finance ministry will decide on an appropriate amount of compensation to demand from Goldman, and said the 1 billion Malaysian ringgit — which amounts to around $250 million — “is peanuts.”