A 1MDB statement stressed that the company was not a party to the United States suit while offering no comment on the alleged embezzlement of its funds.
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Among the assets the USA seeks to seize are paintings by Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh, and a $35 million Bombardier jet.
“As the Prime Minister has always maintained, if any wrongdoing is proven, the law will be enforced without exception”, the statement said.
The Wall Street Journal report said five deposits were made into Najib’s accounts and that the two largest transactions, worth $620 million and $61 million, were made in March 2013 ahead of general elections.
The Prime Minister said as the country’s leader he believed in developing Malaysia on an inclusive basis. Malaysia’s government said on Thursday that it will cooperate with lawful investigations of local companies or its citizens. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. We have to establish the facts first. “I want to say categorically that we are serious about good governance”, he said.
However, Attorney-General Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali today said it welcomes any request, in line with its commitment to worldwide cooperation and collaboration in the fight against money-laundering and corrupt practices.
The US Justice Department filed lawsuits Wednesday to seize assets including luxury real estate in Beverly Hills, New York and London, artworks by Monet and Van Gogh, and a Bombardier executive jet, saying they were purchased with money stolen from 1MDB.
It identified the institutions as the Singapore branches of BSI Bank, Falcon Private Bank Limited, Standard Chartered bank and UBS AG, and DBS Bank Ltd.
When the US Justice Department announced the lawsuits, Najib was attending an open house dinner and from where he posted pictures on his Twitter account, laughing and shaking hands with the guests.
A source familiar with the investigation told the Reuters news agency that “Malaysian Official 1” is Najib.
According to the complaint, eleven wire transfers totaling $64 million were used to fund the studio’s operations, including the production of the 2013 movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Red Granite said on Wednesday that none of the funding it received to make the Oscar-nominated film, which took $400 million at the box office worldwide, was illegitimate and nothing the company or Riza did was wrong.
US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the “Malaysian people were defrauded on a monumental scale”.
The lawsuits also name Najib’s friend, Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, or Jho Low, and Abu Dhabi government officials Khadem al-Qubaisi and Mohamed Ahmed Badawy Al-Husseiny.
Political risk consultants Eurasia said Najib, who has not been directly named in the U.S. legal action, is likely to weather any investigation.
His spokesman stressed Thursday that Malaysian authorities had previously found no wrongdoing, while pledging to cooperate with any global inquiries.
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Communications Minister Salleh Said Keruak said 1MDB has been the subject of an “unprecedented politically motivated attack” aimed at unseating the premier.
