“We would sell those interests and, if possible and appropriate, use the proceeds of those sales for the benefit of the victim citizens in Malaysia”, Carr said in an email. The previous largest case in February sought to seize US$850 million.
Advertisement
Whistle-blowers say Low Taek Jho, or “Jho Low”, a jet-setting Malaysian financier who is close to Najib but has no official positions, helped set up 1MDB and played a key role in its financial decisions.
The Singapore authorities also said investigations found Singapore-based DBS Bank, Standard Chartered Bank’s Singapore Branch and Swiss-based UBS had exhibited “undue delay in detecting and reporting suspicious transactions”.
The US action is a blow to Mr Najib but analysts said he remained politically secure after moving a year ago to strengthen his grip on power by replacing critics in his government and party with men loyal to him.
“We had no visibility into whether some of those funds may have been subsequently diverted to other purposes”, said Michael DuVally, a company representative.
As a lawyer, Mas Ermieyati said as all eyes were on Malaysia right now, the people should stay united and strengthen their solidarity so as not to fall for the opposition’s lies and ideas to topple the leaders who was democratically elected by the people.
It was echoed by civil society group Bersih, which said Najib and the attorney-general – who cleared Najib of any wrongdoing in January – should immediately resign to allow for independent investigations.
“They treated this public trust as a personal bank account”, Lynch said at a press conference on Wednesday morning. The investment fund is owned by the government of Malaysia, whose prime minister Najib Razak has been targeted by the massive scandal. Meanwhile former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysians should push for a referendum on Najib’s leadership as he launched a new opposition front made up of ruling party rebels and members of the opposition.
USA authorities apparently seized assets in Switzerland as well, as Switzerland’s prosecutor confirmed to Swiss newspaper “Neue Luzerner Zeitung” (in German) on Thursday. She is the chief prosecutor in central California. “Instead, that money went to relatives and associates of the corrupt officials of 1MDB and others”.
“Approximately $137 million of the pilfered money was spent to purchase works of art, including a $35 million work by Claude Monet”, Decker said.
Najib faced new calls to step aside.
Goldman Sachs has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The money the government wants to recover reflects the amount officials were able to trace through the USA financial system.
Political risk consultants Eurasia said since Najib was not directly named in the lawsuits, that “will afford him protection”. Low has an association with Leonardo DiCaprio dating back several years and reportedly introduced the actor to Riza Aziz, the co-founder of the film’s production house Red Granite Pictures and stepson of the Malaysian prime minister.
– In 2009, $700 million was secretly diverted from a 1MDB joint venture with a small Saudi energy company to bank accounts controlled by Low.
Malaysia’s sovereign-fund scandal is still hot.
Then there’s Khadem Abdullah al-Qubaisi of the United Arab Emirates.
It added that the company is confident that “Riza Aziz and Red Granite did nothing wrong”.
The DOJ lawsuit presents a potentially thorny issue for the United States and Malaysia, as both countries have grown closer during the administration of President Barack Obama, who has visited the South-east Asian nation twice in the past two years.
Advertisement
Najib is not named explicitly in the U.S. filing.
