KUALA LUMPUR, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia has filed criminal charges against 17 current and former directors of Goldman Sachs subsidiaries, Malaysian Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said on Friday.
He explained that the fresh charges were in relation to charges filed last December against the key employees at three Goldman Sachs subsidiaries: Goldman Sachs International, Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC and Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte, he said in a statement.
"They occupied the highest executive positions in those the Goldman Sachs subsidiaries, and exercised or ought to have exercised decision-making authority over the transactions of those bodies corporate," he said.
Thomas said custodial sentences and criminal fines will be sought against the accused for charges due to the severity of the scheme, the long period over which the scheme was planned and executed and the number of Goldman Sachs subsidiaries, officers and employees involved in arranging, structuring, underwriting and selling the three bonds.
The government had previously filed on last Dec. 17 and Dec. 19 for perpetrating a scheme to defraud the government with three bonds, with a face value of 6.5 billion U.S. dollars, which were underwritten and arranged by Goldman Sachs, and issued by subsidiaries of state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
