KUALA LUMPUR: New details of the controversial multi-billion-dollar financial settlement between Malaysia and United States bank Goldman Sachs for the latter’s role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal have surfaced in a months-long investigation by CNA. This was what CNA found after more than a dozen interviews with Malaysian government officials, local and foreign lawyers and bankers. Separately, Mahathir’s government wanted to initiate settlement negotiations by anchoring talks with a higher figure of close to US$9 billion against Goldman Sachs for its outsized role in the 1MDB scandal, the sources said. But the settlement terms later hammered out by the Muhyiddin administration included immunity from criminal and civil action granted to 17 Goldman Sachs directors and certain corporate entities of the bank, and a far lower settlement figure, senior lawyers close to the situation told CNA. The new figure was the US$3.9 billion that Goldman Sachs agreed in July 2020 to pay to the Malaysian government in exchange for dropping all criminal charges against the bank.