Illustrative image (Photo:https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/) Hanoi (VNA) – TheUS has reached a settlement to recover more than 49 million USD involving the1 MalaysiaDevelopment Berhad (1MDB) investment fund, the US Department ofJustice (DoJ) said.
In a statement on May 6, the DoJ said it has settled its civil forfeiture casesagainst assets acquired by Khadem al-Qubaisi, former managing director of AbuDhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC), using fundsallegedly misappropriated from 1MDB and laundered through financialinstitutions in several jurisdictions, including the US, Switzerland, Singaporeand Luxembourg.
IPIC had guaranteed bonds for 1MDB in 2012, arranged by Goldman. Al-Qubaisi isreported to have been sentenced to prison for 15 years in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
In April, the DoJ repatriatedanother 300 million USD recovered from asset seizures linked to the 1MDBfund to Malaysia.
Along with other amounts returned to Malaysia a year ago, the US has so far helped Malaysiarecover more than 1 billion USD lost in the corruption scandal.
The 1MDB was founded by former Malaysian Prime Minister Nazib Razak in 2009 with the aimof boosting the country’s socio-economic development.
Malaysian and Americaninvestigators believe that the fund has looted about 4.5 billion USD, about 1billion USD of which was sent to Nazib’s personal bank account.
Last September, the DoJ reached a deal with Malaysian financier Jho Low toretake almost 1 billion USD in funds Low and his family had misappropriatedfrom the 1MDB./.
VNA
