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A long-running dispute over the future of Toys “R” Us Inc.’s healthy Asian retail business has come to an end, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Asian business’s proposed new owners, a group of bondholders, have reached a deal with minority owner Fung Retailing Ltd. to form a partnership to operate the business, according to a Thursday news release. When Toys “R” Us announced it would wind down its U.S. business in March, it said that it would either sell or liquidate its international entities. The Asian business was considered the most prized among them. Fung owned a 15 percent stake in the Asian business, the result of a joint venture signed in April 2017, just months before Toys “R” Us’s bankruptcy filing. Early on, the TRU Taj foreign arm of Toys “R” Us sought in U.S. bankruptcy court to invalidate Fung’s right of first refusal and sell 100 percent of the equity. Fung pushed back, arguing that it didn’t fall under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts and that bid procedures should protect its rights. A U.S. bankruptcy judge overruled the objection, but Fung appealed.

The Trump administration will hold off for now on imposing new tariffs on automobile imports as top officials weigh revisions to a report on the national security implications, Bloomberg reported. President Donald Trump met with his top trade advisers yesterday at the White House to discuss a draft report on a Commerce Department investigation into the impact of car imports. Sources said that the administration wasn’t ready to act on tariffs and that the report would be subject to further changes. The Commerce probe, which began in May under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, covers imports of automobiles, including SUVs, vans and light trucks, as well as auto parts. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has until February to deliver his findings to the president, who has final say on any tariffs. Trump has threatened tariffs of as much as 25 percent on foreign-made vehicles. Companies and governments from Europe to Asia have warned Trump that tariffs on car imports would hurt the U.S. economy and disrupt the global auto industry.

Years before Goldman Sachs Group Inc. arranged bond deals now at the heart of globe-spanning corruption probes, the firm’s then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein personally helped forge ties with Malaysia and its new sovereign wealth fund, Bloomberg reported. Blankfein was the unidentified high-ranking Goldman Sachs executive referenced in U.S. court documents who attended a 2009 meeting with the former Malaysian prime minister, the people said. The meeting was arranged with the help of men who are now tied to the subsequent plundering of the 1MDB fund, according to U.S. court documents unsealed last week. The high-level gathering laid the groundwork for a relationship that would prove profitable for the investment bank. Since then, the use of $6.5 billion that Goldman raised for 1MDB has sparked investigations across several nations, and entangled the U.S. bank in a high-profile corruption probe.

Two senior Goldman Sachs bankers paid bribes and stole and laundered money from a Malaysian sovereign-wealth fund, U.S. prosecutors allege, putting the bank at the center of one of the biggest financial frauds in history, the Wall Street Journal reported. Former Goldman partner Timothy Leissner, then its head of Southeast Asia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money and violate foreign antibribery laws for helping siphon off billions of dollars from the fund, known as 1Malaysia Development Bhd, or 1MDB, according to filings unsealed yesterday. Former Goldman managing director Roger Ng, and the alleged mastermind of the fraud, Malaysian financier Jho Low, were indicted on three counts of conspiring to violate foreign antibribery laws and launder money.

Venezuela is spending a seemingly inordinate amount of money to keep control of Citgo Petroleum Corp., its prized U.S. refiner that most analysts predict it will eventually lose anyway, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The embattled South American country shelled out $950 million this week to bondholders with collateral rights over Citgo, a critical crude oil customer and revenue source. The payment ensures that these bondholders won’t immediately wrest control of Citgo from its owner, state energy company Petróleos de Venezuela SA. Those are the only bonds that Venezuela has continued to pay down since spiraling into widespread default on last year on tens of billions of dollars in debt. Venezuela is apparently eager to protect its stake in Citgo, which is believed to be the country’s largest external subsidiary and the only significant asset that creditors can reach through the U.S. court system.