PARLIAMENT | A lawmaker has called for the formation of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to investigate the 2020 settlement agreement between the previous government and Goldman Sachs over the recovery of 1MDB assets.
Chong Zhemin (Harapan-Kampar) questioned how such a “one-sided” deal could have been struck, allowing the Wall Street bank to pay only US$2.5 billion (RM11.8 billion) out of an initially agreed US$3.9 billion settlement.
“I hope we can all agree to set up an RCI so that we can launch a full investigation into how such a one-sided agreement could be entered into,” he told the Dewan Rakyat during the supplementary supply debate session.
Chong (above) asserted that the agreement’s lack of clarity enabled Goldman Sachs to evade fully honouring the US$1.4 billion guarantee it had provided Malaysia for recovered 1MDB assets.
He insisted that at least US$4.5 billion should have been recoverable based on the amounts allegedly misappropriated from the state fund.
The MP also urged holding former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was in power when the deal was inked, fully accountable through the proposed RCI.
The Goldman Sachs deal is being scrutinised by the 1MDB asset recovery task force, headed by Plantation and Commodities Minister Johari Abdul Ghani, who has also been critical of the agreement.
Chong recommended placing a US$1 million bounty on fugitive financier Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, to facilitate his arrest and gain full disclosure of the 1MDB scandal.
“If Osama bin Laden could be tracked down after (nearly) a decade, (why can’t we find Low?)
“If we can find Low, I think we can find out what really happened in the 1MDB scandal,” he added.
The call comes after Parliament was informed the government has paid RM48.06 billion to service debts racked up by the 1MDB fund, including US$3 billion settled last March from the 2023 budget. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.