Singapore said Thursday it had seized almost US$180 million linked to scandal-tainted Malaysian state fund 1MDB, raising the pressure a day after Washington moved to grab more than US$1 billion in assets over “enormous” fraud.
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Malaysia’s prime minister is facing legal action from the USA relating to allegedly embezzled assets. The lawsuits will likely affect relations, but they did not come as a surprise, said a USA congressional aide.
This follows ongoing investigations of various 1MDB-related fund flows through Singapore for possible money laundering, securities fraud, cheating, and other offences committed here.
No criminal charges have been filed in the scandal surrounding Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which was overseen by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“As Najib has always maintained, if any wrongdoing is proven, the law will be enforced without exception”.
But Najib began a career of deep corruption nearly as soon as he became defense minister for the second time in 1999 under then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
The US Justice Department is seeking to seize more than US$1 billion (NZ$1.4b) worth of property it says went through US banks from the Malaysian development fund, known as 1MDB, and was ultimately used to illegally acquire assets.
All three have been connected to major real estate acquisitions in New York City over the past several years with funds tied to 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a “strategic investment and development company wholly-owned by the government of Malaysia”, per the lawsuit.
More than $3.5 billion (£2.64 billion) was misappropriated from the Malaysian firm, and about $1 billion (£755 million) laundered through the US banking system, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday as it launched what could potentially be its biggest ever seizure for such ill-gotten gains.
Prime Minister Najib Razak’s press secretary said Thursday that Malaysia’s government is aware of the civil lawsuits brought against the various assets, and would cooperate with any lawful investigation of Malaysian companies or citizens in accordance with global protocols.
In a 136-page court filing, the DoJ also names the producer involved in making The Wolf Of Wall Street film. Special Agent Darryl Wegner, chief of the FBI’s International Corruption Unit, said that leaders of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission showed “tremendous courage” in pursuing the investigation.
In a statement, Red Granite said that to its knowledge, “none of the funding it received four years ago was in any way illegitimate”.
Leslie Caldwell, assistant US attorney general, said money was diverted from 1MDB bond offerings through a Swiss bank account and shell companies around the world to Red Granite.
The lawsuits also named 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.
“Instead, as detailed in the complaints, 1MDB officials and their associates allegedly misappropriated more than $3 billion”, Lynch said.
Attorney-General Apandi Ali pointed out that his United States counterpart did not name Najib as a defendant in the civil suits filed in California on Wednesday or allege any criminal wrongdoing against the PM. The opposition is too weak in Malaysia to dislodge him.
“We helped raise money for a sovereign wealth fund that was created to invest in Malaysia”.
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Ordinary Malaysians will likely be shocked by this USA investigation, as the Malaysian government’s own probe of 1MDB has already ended, he said.
