“We intend to seek some claims from them,” the report quoted Lim as saying in an interview. However, Lim did not give details about what kind of claims the government would seek.
The report noted that the bank was already facing investigations in the United States and elsewhere related to its activity in Malaysia, where it was once a dominant financial force.
Lim said the authorities were likely to move cautiously and that the process of claiming anything from Goldman Sachs “will take time”, adding that the Pakatan Harapan government had reopened communication lines with American authorities that the Najib Razak government had shut off.
“The Department of Justice has been superb. I think they have been really helpful,” Lim added.
Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has moved forcefully to investigate the alleged theft of billions of dollars from 1MDB. The US says US$4.5 billion was diverted from the fund into the bank accounts of Najib, his family and his friends.
US investigators had called it a “massive, brazen and blatant” scheme. But Najib has denied any wrongdoing.
Goldman Sachs helped 1MDB raise US$6.5 billion in 2012 and 2013 through bond sales. US investigators say US$2.5 billion of that money was then diverted to senior officials for their personal gain.
The bank, which pocketed US$600 million in fees for its work selling the bonds, said it was unaware of any wrongdoing.
“We helped raise money for a sovereign wealth fund that was designed to invest in Malaysia. We had no visibility into whether some of those funds may have been subsequently diverted to other purposes,” the NYT report quoted Edward Naylor, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs as saying.
At its peak in 2016, Goldman had two-thirds of the market in Malaysia for foreign bond offerings, according to data from Dealogic.
Now, the NYT report said, due to the 1MDB scandal, Goldman Sachs was largely staying away from any business in Malaysia that requires being in the public eye.
In the United States, the report added, prosecutors were seeking to collect evidence that could be used to build a criminal case against the main players in 1MDB.
As part of the civil case in the United States, prosecutors have seized assets they allege are connected to the scheme. If they gather enough information to pursue a criminal case, the government could charge individuals and institutions, it added.