Goldman Sachs Group agreed to a $79.5 million settlement in a lawsuit filed by Fulton County Employees' Retirement System, Atlanta, in connection with the major bribery scheme involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd.
The $1 billion pension fund originally filed the shareholder derivative lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York in February 2019, alleging that the bank's "destructive business culture, which … prioritized the consummation of deals ahead of the proper operation of its compliance functions," according to the original filing.
According to the plaintiff's May 13 memorandum supporting preliminary approval of the settlement, the funds will be used entirely for Goldman Sachs' compliance purposes and the implementation of corporate governance measures "to strengthen the company's internal controls and prevent future wrongdoing at the company," according to the filing.
Goldman Sachs in October 2020 had agreed to pay $2.9 billion to settle U.S. criminal and civil penalties for the bribery scheme with 1MDB. According to an SEC order at the time, beginning in 2012, former senior employees of Goldman Sachs used a third-party intermediary to bribe high-ranking government officials in Malaysia and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Those bribes enabled Goldman Sachs to obtain lucrative business from 1MDB, a Malaysian government-owned investment fund, including underwriting about $6.5 billion in bond offerings that earned Goldman Sachs more than $600 million in fees.
The court still has to approve the settlement.
Joseph E. White III, founding shareholder of Saxena White and counsel for the plaintiff, and Andrea Williams, Goldman Sachs spokeswoman, could not be immediately reached for comment.
