Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad also confirmed that Malaysia rejected a previous Goldman Sachs offer as it was too low.
“They’ve caused us to lose about US$7 billion. They may not want to pay us that amount. Their offer is too low, because of that we have not accepted their offer,” he told Malaysian media on the sidelines of the 35th Asean Summit here.
“But how much we’re willing to accept, of course, it’s based on the negotiation, out of court negotiation. But if we cannot reach an agreement, we’ve to go to court,” he said.
Mahathir was recently quoted by the Financial Times as saying that Goldman Sachs had offered “less than US$2 billion”.
“We’re not satisfied with the amount, so we are still talking to them…if they respond reasonably, we might not insist on getting the US$7.5 billion,” he had said in the report.
The report said Goldman Sachs helped 1MDB to raise US$6.5 billion in bonds, and that the former allegedly earned RM600 million in fees from the bond issues.