PARLIAMENT | Heated arguments broke out in the Dewan Rakyat today over the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government's settlement deal with Goldman Sachs.
It started when Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz (above) fired back at former attorney-general (AG) Tommy Thomas, citing a Feb 11 letter where the latter allegedly wanted to agree to a settlement of just US$1.75 billion (RM4.2 billion).
Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng (Harapan-Bagan) later questioned whether PN's US$3.9 billion deal was cabinet approved, only for Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to interject and answer on behalf of the government.
The PN government's deal with Goldman, for US$2.5 billion in cash and US$1.4 billion guarantee on the recovery of assets acquired using stolen 1MDB funds, had been criticised by Thomas, who argued the government could have obtained a better deal.
Responding to this in Parliament, Tengku Zafrul said that on Feb 11, Thomas had actually written to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, saying Goldman had agreed to raise their settlement offer to US$1.75 billion.
This included US$164 million in taxes, and the return of US$576 million in fees paid to Goldman by the government for the 1MDB deal.
"The recommendation made by the former AG, was to find a settlement outside of court.
"At all material times, the former AG was also seeking a settlement with Goldman. It is therefore disingenuous of him to say we should not have done what he wanted to do in the first place," Tengku Zafrul said.
Malaysiakini has contacted Thomas for a response.
Tony Pua (Harapan-Damansara) interjected Tengku Zafrul's remarks and said Thomas had actually said that a settlement should have only been made after Goldman and its executives had been charged in court, so that the government can have maximum leverage to obtain the highest compensation.
He added that to his knowledge, the Pakatan Harapan government had rejected Goldman's US$1.75 billion offer.
[More to follow] - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.