KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said his government will restart negotiations with Goldman Sachs to recover the billions of dollars lost in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) financial scandal, failing which it might resort to suing the US investment bank.

The prime minister said that Goldman Sachs should return some of the hefty profits it earned from its controversial dealings with 1MDB and its embattled staff who have been convicted of crimes related to the Malaysian sovereign fund.

"I've said before that we'll have to reopen these negotiations with Goldman Sachs, because they were complicit in the crime. Unfortunately, they have not been too forthcoming. And we will therefore have no choice but to pursue this.

"And I'm not discounting the possibility of proceeding again, the issue of lawsuits. No, I'm not ruling that out. Because it's beyond me. As I've always said, you assaulted me, I can forgive you. You put me in jail, I forgive you. But you steal from the people, I will have to get it back,” he said in an interview with US broadcaster CNBC that aired today.

Anwar said his government would start up negotiations first as legal fees in the United States would be costly.

"No one can deny the fact that Goldman Sachs was used, and partly used the authorities, so it's only fair when you talk about governance, and western countries like the United States talk about democratic accountability, rule of law, to be supportive of our efforts to regain.

"Why must we punish the people of Malaysia by having to pay hefty profits made by them? I just do say we should negotiate. They should return,” he said.

Anwar commended the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the Attorney General's Chambers and the various ministries for their success in getting back between 65 and 68 per cent of the absconded funds.

"This is an impressive feat in any country with a history of such financial malfeasance. But I'm not stopping at that,” he said.

In March, a US federal court convicted Roger Ng, Goldman Sachs’ former Malaysian head of investment banking of abetment in the theft of US$35 million from 1MDB and sentenced him to 10 years in jail.

To date, Ng is the only former Goldman staff member to have been sentenced to jail.

However, the US court agreed last month to defer his sentence pending the outcome of a government-to-government negotiation on his extradition as Ng is also wanted here on related charges.

In 2020 under the Muhyiddin administration, Goldman Sachs agreed to pay Putrajaya US$2.9 billion to settle a US-led investigation into the 1MDB scandal.