This archive report concerns a new legal push by Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) against Goldman Sachs and other parties over losses tied to Malaysia’s 1MDB fund.
IPIC said it filed the civil case in New York to recover money it says was lost through its dealings with 1MDB. In its statement, the company accused the defendants of taking part in “a long-running effort to corrupt former executives of IPIC and its subsidiary Aabar Investments, and mislead IPIC and Aabar.”
The allegations centre on claims that Goldman worked with unidentified people from Malaysia to bribe Khadem Abdulla al-Qubaisi, who was then IPIC managing director and Aabar chairman, and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy al-Husseiny, the former Aabar chief executive. IPIC says the arrangement was meant to benefit Goldman and 1MDB at the expense of IPIC and Aabar.
A Goldman spokesman said: “We are in the process of assessing the details of the allegations and fully expect to contest the claim vigorously.” Malaysian government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
IPIC also said it had filed a criminal complaint in the United Arab Emirates against Qubaisi and Husseiny, accusing them of accepting bribes and abusing their authority. Their whereabouts were not publicly known at the time, and they could not be contacted.
The dispute sits inside the wider 1MDB scandal, which has drawn corruption and money-laundering investigations in at least six countries. The U.S. Justice Department has alleged that about $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by senior officials and their associates between 2009 and 2014.
The Reuters report said the case came three weeks after U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against two former Goldman bankers and Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho in connection with 1MDB.
The 2015 backdrop also mattered: a Reuters file photo used with the report showed a 1MDB billboard at the fund’s Tun Razak Exchange project in Kuala Lumpur dated March 1, 2015. That year is part of the timeline surrounding the scandal and the later claims now being tested in court.
IPIC further said that last year, 1MDB and the Malaysian government agreed to pay $1.2 billion to IPIC under a London arbitration award and to take responsibility for future principal and interest payments on 1MDB bonds guaranteed by IPIC. Malaysia then moved on Tuesday to set aside that award, and IPIC said it would fight the bid and defend the settlement’s validity.
Malaysia has also said it wants to recover fees Goldman received for helping 1MDB raise money, along with losses tied to those transactions.
