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.
Advertisement
Instead, US prosecutors said, fund officials diverted more than $3.5 billion (about RM14 billion) through a web of shell companies and bank accounts in Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the United States.
Singapore authorities said in a statement on Thursday they had seized S$240 million ($177-million) of assets in an investigation of 1MDB-related fund flows for possible money laundering.
The back-to-back announcements were the clearest signs yet of a tightening noose on 1MDB, which was founded and overseen by embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak and has caused more than a year of Malaysian tumult.
The Justice Department says “Malaysian Official 1” repeatedly conspired with Low to receive millions in illicit payments, and its description of the official strongly suggests that it refers Najib.
Not to mention the fact that a movie about financial rorting has been swept up into an FBI investigation of financial rorting.
In the course of investigations, bank accounts belonging to various individuals have been seized and dealings in properties belonging to some of these individuals have been curtailed, the authorities said.
Attorney-General Apandi Ali pointed out that his USA 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.
1MDB and the Malaysian prime minister’s office had no immediate comment.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, powerful officials at 1MDB siphoned more than $3.5 billion from the fund and laundered it though a series of global transactions.
“The simple answer is we do not have any control over Justice Department actions”, Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, told Reuters on Wednesday during a visit to Myanmar.
At home, former premier Mahathir Mohamad led a chorus of opposition voices calling on Najib to step down.
As the prime minister holds the financial portfolio under which 1MDB operates, and many of his critics say he should have known what was going on “and many actually accuse him of being involved in this whole scenario”, Rahman said.
The regulator said in May that it is closing the Singapore unit of Lugano-based BSI for breaches of money-laundering rules in relation to its 1MDB probe.
The Justice Department said it was the largest forfeiture demand under an initiative that seeks to recover foreign bribery proceeds and embezzled funds.
An ex-BSI banker and another man have been charged in a Singapore court for various offenses and several others are being questioned.
“Supervisory examinations of financial institutions with 1MDB-related fund flows have revealed a complex global web of transactions involving multiple entities and individuals operating in several jurisdictions”, the Singapore central bank said.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Sohail Rahman, speaking from Kuala Lumpur, said ordinary Malaysians will likely be shocked by this USA investigation, as the Malaysian government’s own probe of 1MDB has already ended.
The DOJ also outlined businessman Low Taek Jho’s alleged involvement in siphoning up to US$3.5 billion from 1MDB.
Advertisement
“In seeking to seize these forfeited items, the Department of Justice is sending a message that we will not allow the United States to become a playground for the corrupt”, said Eileen Decker, the US Attorney in Los Angeles.
