Malaysia: Recovery of US$322 million stolen from the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

24 March 2020
Malaysia has recovered US$322 million stolen from the sovereign wealth fund 1MDB, officials said on 17 Mar 2020.
Another US$1.6 billion stolen from 1Malaysia Development Berhad has been identified and steps are being taken to recover the money, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s office said. The fraud allegedly involved ex-prime minister Najib Razak and his inner circle.

Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, in a statement, said a separate sum of SG$50 million of funds traceable to 1MDB have been ordered to be repatriated by the Singapore Courts. Of which SG$15 million was credited into the 1MDB asset recovery account between September last year and March this year. The balance of SG$35 million will be credited shortly. He also said that the DOJ was seeking to forfeit through its numerous civil forfeiture complaints filed from 2016 to 2019.

Thomas said a deduction of some US$3 million was made to reimburse costs incurred by the DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in investigating, seizing, litigating and securing a settlement for the Red Granite funds.

Also included in the deduction were the costs incurred by the DOJ and FBI in investigating, seizing and maintaining the Equanimity when it was seized in Indonesian waters before it arrived in Malaysian waters.

Thomas said the DOJ is in the process of remitting a further sum of US$139 million which was the result of the sale of Jho Low’s interest in the Park Lane Hotel, in Manhattan.

THE corruption and money-laundering trial of former prime minister Najib Razak, involving RM2.3 billion of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) funds, will resume on April 1. Senior deputy public prosecutor Gopal Sri Ram, who leads the prosecution team in the trial, told this to Bernama via a short message.

Malaysian authorities have not yet released their estimate of monies lost from 1MDB but US Department of Justice estimated it to be $4.5bn.
The SunDaily reported.