YOURSAY | 'Former AG Apandi believed nothing was lost, no money was stolen…'

MOF: Goldman Sachs agrees to US$3.9b settlement

Clearwater: It would be illuminating to have a forensic accounting of the total sum to be ultimately borne by Malaysian taxpayers in the 1MDB saga.

As it is, big numbers are thrown around; this much may be stolen and that much (to be) recovered, but what debts still remain, even after the most optimistic recovery scenario?

You can get investment bank Goldman Sachs to settle, for they have a valuable business to protect, but for the individuals involved, you will have to catch them first or else the loot will be frittered away.

Not much hope resides there, given that certain powerful people may not want them caught at all.

Clever Voter: US$3.9 billion (RM16.6 billion) is a lot of money. But the largest loot remains in the hands of a few individuals. One would not be surprised if these would be lost forever.

Politics, as history tells us, often is unfair to the society that deserves them. It is now the conscience of this government to do the right thing – recover the lost money, close the case and move on.

One has to brave to be hopeful.

BusinessFirst: How strange. All this time, the BN government under then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and ruling party Umno had said that there was nothing wrong and nothing missing.

Why then are we continually getting money back in the billions?

RedShark6167: It is public knowledge that the Pakatan Harapan government and Tommy Thomas initiated the recovery process immediately after he was appointed as the attorney-general (AG) in 2018.

In such negotiations, the fight, in the beginning, is the toughest to establish our legal legitimacy as Goldman Sachs will not so easily agree to pay the money.

So, it will only be fair for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to also give credit to Harapan and Thomas where it is due, aside from his long list of current Perikatan Nasional (PN) officials.

Constitutional Supremacy: The charges were filed by Thomas. He thus deserves a salute for a job well done.

The present AG withdrew 46 charges against former Sabah chief minister Musa Aman, totalling almost half a billion ringgit, and the reason was difficulty in proving the charges as the documents are overseas.

Odysseus: Yes, salute to Thomas and the Harapan government for initiating the charges against Goldman Sachs.

Without this brave action, nothing would have happened if BN were to rule and nothing new would have happened after PN took over.

Shibboleth: Kudos to Thomas and his team who filed the claim against the egregious Goldman Sachs.

They nailed the colours to the mast from day one, compared to the former BN ministers who daren't even claim the money from the US Justice of Department (DOJ) after the latter had forfeited Jho Low's money and assets in the US.

The Wakandan: Former AG Mohamed Apandi Ali didn't want the money, which was why it was not claimed initially.

He believed nothing was lost, no money was stolen and no kleptocrat. Harapan worked on it and this is what we have today.

Credit to the good work of Thomas. We should have kept him as AG.

Anonymous 5237890145285379: Great news. So, do we have a crime committed by any Malaysian who colluded with Goldman Sachs? Otherwise, are we saying foreigners can commit financial crimes in Malaysia without any Malaysian involved?

So far, I have not seen any Malaysian convicted. The other question is - if Goldman Sachs is willing to cough up US$3.9 billion to the government, what is the actual amount lost by the government?

Gaji Buta: So, something wrong had indeed taken place right under our noses. Indeed, was anyone from Malaysia involved? Obviously not, from the way Umno and their supporters are behaving.

This is, after all, all the fault of outsiders.

Ada Harapan: Yet the kleptocrat said he has not stolen any money and is still strutting around like a peacock when all his feathers are gone.

Now this government can enjoy the largesse. Thanks to Harapan for initiating action which the previous government and the hopeless Apandi refused to do.

Boeyks: This US$3.9 billion claim was started by the Harapan government after the GE14 victory.

This amount of money should not be used by the PN government because of its association with the people who were responsible for the theft of the money in the first place.

The money should not be used by these alleged thieves to buy support for the impending GE. It should be used to pay back the loans raised by Goldman Sachs of US$6.5 billion at very high interest.

The people should not be taxed to pay back these fraudulent loans. Any shortfall in these loan repayments should be recovered from the alleged thieves and their conniving cronies.

Mushiro: Perhaps Goldman Sachs quickly agreed to a US$3.9 billion settlement with the PN government to save themselves from a bigger amount, should a new government be formed.

This money will ‘disappear’ after it is given to the PN government. It is sad that the people who caused the loss of 1MDB will be receiving this compensation.

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