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Report: Goldman to settle DOJ probe into Malaysia's 1MDB for over $2B

21 October 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Goldman Sachs has agreed with the Department of Justice to pay over $2 billion for the bank's role in Malaysia's multi-billion dollar scandal at state fund 1MDB, Bloomberg first reported.

Why it matters: The settlement, expected to be announced within days, would allow Goldman Sachs to avoid a criminal conviction in the U.S. over the bribery and money laundering scandal that saw three of its former bankers banned for life from the banking industry by the Federal Reserve Board.

  • Per the Financial Times, An Asian subsidiary of Goldman Sachs "has agreed to plead guilty" to U.S. charges "as part of a global regulatory settlement that includes more than $2bn in new penalties," expected to be announced this week.

Context: Per Axios' Felix Salmon, the bank facilitated the 1MDB fraud, earning almost $600 million in fees on three bond deals from the deeply corrupt Malaysian fund. Each time, as soon as Goldman provided the money to 1MDB, Jho Low, a former financier to ex-Prime Minister Rajib Najib, would steal it.

  • The bank has always denied wrongdoing and blamed its former rogue workers.

Of note: The bank agreed in July to a $3.9 billion settlement — including $2.5 billion in cash —  in exchange for charges being dropped over its role in raising funds for 1MDB Najib.

  • Najib was sentenced to 12 years in prison after being found guilty of all seven corruption charges against him over the 1MDB case.
  • The DOJ did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment and a spokesperson for Goldman said in an emailed statement Tuesday, "We're not at a point we can comment or help at the present time."

Go deeper: How Goldman Sachs facilitated the heist of the century

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.